Survival 101
by GumieStarz
Summary: When Bella and her new friends Alice and Rosalie get a job on The maiden voyage of Cullen Cruise's new ship, They meet three mysterious strangers. But when the ship crashes, leaving them stranded on an island, will love blossom? or will war ensue? AH, AU
1. Begginings

**Disclaimer: Twilight? nope it doesn't belong to me, so please dont sue! Thank you.**

"Bella honey, you don't have to do this!" my father exclaimed. His face was beginning to turn red from all his shouting. This is my dad. His name is Charlie, and he was my best friend.

My mother had died when I was 3 and I had never really known her. It was really hard on my dad, and we had never had the best things, but I was immensely proud of him.

"Dad" I said calmly. He stopped waving his arms about in the air for a second to hear me out.

"I _want_ to do this" I explained to him, "I _want _to be able to contribute".

He seemed to have calmed down a bit as he placed his hands softly on my shoulders.

"But Bells…"

"Nope dad, no buts, my mind is made up" I replied coldly. I crossed my arms to make it look more intimidating.

"Fine!" he shouted, throwing his arms up in the air again. "Fine Bella you can go, just…, just make sure your safe". The usual the wave of guilt engulfed me, but I was strong and pushed against it.

"Thank you dad" I said, going over to hug him. He hugged me back fiercely.

"I'm gonna miss you Bells, I wont have anything to eat while your gone" he joked. I laughed sadly and let go of him.

"Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it" I assured him.

"Yeah 3 months, I've got nothing to worry about!" he said, finally smiling again. I loved it when my father smiled. You could see the real Charlie, somewhere deep in his eyes, not the tired, worn-out Charlie that I always saw.

"I'll miss you dad" I whispered, my eyes had begun to tear-up. I looked back at him, and I saw tears in his eyes as well.

"Me too Bells, me too" he said, nodding. I gave him one last hug and walked over to get my things. I wasn't bringing much, just my rucksack and my extra little bag. I walked out the door followed closely by my dad.

As I walked down the little dirt path that lead the way from our house I turned back and waved at Charlie until I could no longer see him. I reluctantly turned around to face forwards again, the tears finally overflowing, and trudged on into my future.

**A/N:**

**Bear with me guys. I'm sorry the first chapter's so short, but don't worry, they _will _get longer and more interesting. This is just setting the story. **


	2. Pier 10

**Discalimer: Twilight? nope i don't own it, please don't sue me! Thank you.**

I passed countless towns as I made my way towards the coast. I spent most of my time dreaming about what it was like on a cruise ship.

I had never set foot near one let alone a boat, and as far as I can remember, the only time I have actually seen the sea was when I was about four, and my grandparents had taken me off Charlie so he could deal with things a better.

My stomach was filled with butterflies when I finally reached the docks. I looked them over. There were about fifty ships lined up along the whole thing.

I wandered up and down them uselessly, there was no way I was going to find the right cruise ship. I was going to give up and walk back home when I heard someone behind me.

"Hi" she said politely, "I'm a bit lost and I was wondering if you could help me?" whoever this lady was, she was unbelievably beautiful.

She was wearing an incredibly white dress that fitted her perfectly, with the hem resting just above her knee. Her hair was short and black, it hung delicately around her smiling face and she barely cleared my shoulders. She was stunning.

"Um…" I muttered, completely amazed that someone like her was talking to me. "Well actually, I'm a bit lost as well" I explained to her.

"Oh, I'm sorry I bothered you" she replied, her smile slipping into a pout. I couldn't just leave her there. She looked so lonely and lost, I had to help her.

"Excuse me, well I might be able to help, where exactly are you going?" I asked. Her smile was back again when she answered me.

"Pier ten" she said.

"Me too!"

"Are you going on the cruise?" she asked, her face falling slightly.

"No, well kind of, I'm staff" I told her. If she was happy before, she was definitely ecstatic now.

"Me too!" she cried. She stated to jump up and down with excitement. "This is going to be so much fun!" she yelled as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me forwards.

"So you're working on the cruise as well? What's your job?" I asked. Suddenly she stopped walking.

"I'm not sure, I have to ask my friend. You should meet her sometime she's really quite nice…" she stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. I desperately hoped I hadn't done something stupid._ Crap_ was there anything on my face?!

"I got all caught up in the moment I haven't even introduced my self" she shook her head at herself. Relief flooded through me.

"It's okay, I don't mind" I told her.

"Don't be silly" she mumbled quietly. She held out her hand and I reached over and shook it.

"I'm very sorry about my behaviour, I was very rude. My name is Alice Brandon".

"I'm Bella" I replied shyly.

"Well Bella, you're in for the time of your life"


	3. My View!

**Disclaimer: Twilight? still don't own it, don't sue me please! thanks.**

I walked with Alice down the docks. Apparently we had been at dock number 120. How I had managed to get that far away I had no idea. As we walked down the docks, we talked.

Alice would ask me a series of questions so quickly that I could barely answer one before she started the other one. She asked me about my favourite Shops, my favourite food, my favourite things to do anything along those lines.

We eventually came to a stop in front of what I assumed was the cruise ship. It was magnificent. On one side of it, in big bold letters, read: _**Rica**_, and underneath that it had the Cullen cruises logo.

"Wow" was all I could say. Alice chuckled at my expression.

"Come on silly" she said, pulling me forwards. "Rosalie said she was going to meet me around here".

"Is she the friend you were talking about earlier?" I asked, I felt a bit dumb at the moment.

"Yes Bella, now hurry up!" she scolded. She sure was scary for someone so tiny. We walked up to the side of the ship and found a bench.

I spent all my time trying to keep Alice in the seat because she was jumping around so much. It was getting pretty tiring when I heard the tapping of high heels on wood.

"Alice!" someone shouted "do you have any idea how heavy your bags are!"

Alice immediately jumped out of the chair and ran up to Rosalie, knocking me off the chair in the process.

By the time I had gotten up, they had both walked back over to me, Rosalie having dropped the pile of bags further down the pier, and when I finally saw her clearly. I had a hard time trying to keep my jaw from dropping.

Rosalie was a lot taller than Alice, especially with those heels. But if Alice was stunning, she was drop dead gorgeous. She was wearing dark blue skinny jeans and a simple navy blue tank top that clung to her perfectly. She was way more beautiful than any model I had ever seen.

"Bella, this is my friend Rosalie!" Alice said excitedly. I held out my hand and shook Rosalie's.

"It's nice to meet you, Alice has told me lots about you" I said.

"Really" she said eyeing Alice, "well anyway, it's nice to meet you too Bella" she concluded, her smile was dazzling.

Even though I was momentarily stunned by the fact that I had just meet two incredibly beautiful women who seemed to like me, in less than half an hour, I was incredibly curious of why they'd bring so many bags. I mean, they were only working on a ship for three months. They wouldn't need _that _many bags, would they? I was interrupted by a very annoyed Alice.

"Bella! Hello!" she said, waving her hand backwards and forwards in front of my face.

"Earth to Bella!" Rosalie yelled in my ear. I swear I jumped so high that I was scared I might kick Alice in the head.

"Jeez, I think you might've broken my ear drum Rosalie"

"Your welcome"

……………………………………………………..

It was amazing how fast we bonded. It was like we had all known each other in past lives. With Rosalie leading the way Alice, my broken ear drum and I grudgingly made our way up to the ship.

Rosalie looked so comfortable. She walked around as if she owned the place. She calmly walked over to the gangway for staff, and was immediately stopped by a hefty looking guard.

"Name" he grunted. The look on Rosalie's face was priceless. I actually had to bite the inside of my mouth to stop from laughing at her. I looked over and saw Alice was doing the same.

"Rosalie Hale" she replied angrily. The poor guard looked as if he were about to have a heart attack.

"M...M...Miss Hale" he stuttered "I'm dreadfully sorry, I...I…" he couldn't get anymore out so he simply gestured for Rosalie to board the ship. Rosalie turned sharply on her heel and headed up without a backwards glance.

Alice and I followed her up into the ship. Rosalie was leaning against a pole at the top of the gangway, waiting for us. She was absolutely fuming. If it were possible, I think that she'd have steam coming out of her ears.

Once we had met up with her she proceeded to walk in front of us, while Alice and I exchanged slightly worried glances. Finally she felt like it was too much to bear and she exploded on us. Not literally, but close enough.

"I can't believe… ugh the nerve of some people!" she hissed. "I mean, I'm Rosalie Hale, _Rosalie Hale_, how could they not recognise me!"

"Have you been here before?" I asked. That stopped her. She went silent and exchanged a look with Alice. I saw her raise her eyebrow slightly, obviously trying to be inconspicuous.

"I… uh yeah, I used to go sailing with my dad" she said it as if it were a question. I knew they were hiding something, but now was not the time to pry.

"Really? I've always wanted to go sailing" I said, playing along with their story.

The rest of the walk was in silence. After we had collected our keys and our room numbers we made our way to the lifts. We had to make several trips, because of all of Alice and Rosalie's bags, I didn't mind that much anyway. When we finally reached one of the rooms, we sat down, exhausted, and rested for a while. Who knew walking around a ship could be so tiring?

It turns out we had collapsed in front of Rosalie's room. After our short break, she hesitantly got up and dug around in her bag for her key. She carefully slid the key into the hole and covered her eyes.

"Rose, how are you supposed to open the door when you have your hand over your eyes?" Alice demanded impatiently.

"Alice, this is my room and I'm going to open the door anyway _I _want to!" she snarled. She slowly pushed on the door and the sight behind it was amazing.

The room behind the door wasn't huge, but it was still quite big. It was equipped with a huge queen sized bed, a desk, a T.V, a mini fridge, a couch and a small bathroom. It was even better than my room at home.

"How bad is it?" Rosalie asked. It was strange that Rosalie would be afraid of a room. It wasn't like anyone was going to jump out at her.

"Its okay" Alice replied, "It does look quite cosy, I especially like the view, and if you look through the window like this you can see all the hot guys at the pool!"

"Really?!" Rose shouted as she rushed over to the window, promptly knocking Alice out of the way. "Alice!" she screamed "You can't see anything out of that window!" Rosalie stormed over to the door and pointed at Alice and then at me and made a gesture for us to leave.

"Right. Fine Rose. Be that way" Alice said grumpily as she stomped out of Rosalie's room. I followed her silently and made my way to my own room. I followed Alice through the maze of rooms, and we eventually came to hers.

"Mine" she muttered quietly, obviously still upset with Rosalie. I looked around as Alice opened her door, apparently closing their eyes while opening doors was a tradition. "How does it look?" she asked. The fear was even more evident in her voice then Rosalie's.

"Ummm…" I peeked around her arm and found a similar room to Rosalie's. "Alice, it's exactly the same as Rosalie's".

"NO!" she screeched and ran over to the window. See frantically searched through the window and when she had seen what she wanted, she calmed down. She peacefully walked over to her bed, with a massive smile on her face, and plopped down in the centre. She sighed happily and closed her eyes in contentment.

"Um, Alice? What's out the window?" I asked, a little bit scared of the answer I might get.

"Pool, hot guys" she breathed. I rolled my eyes and tried, unsuccessfully, to contain my giggle. Of course Alice would be happy with that view.

"Bye Alice" I said, still giggling slightly, as I walked out the door. It surprised me that I didn't have to look very far for my room. It was quite close to Alice's, just down the hall from hers. Chuckling slightly, I put my hand over my eyes and reached for my key. I put it in and slowly opened the door to my new room.


	4. All the Hot Guys

**Disclaimer: Nope I still don't own twilight guys, dont sue please! thanks.**

I was incredibly anxious all of a sudden, and I couldn't wait any longer to see my new room. I quickly removed my hand from my eyes, banging my hand on the door, and gawked at the splendour that was my room.

It had dark lavender walls, with a white boarder around the bottom. The ceiling was beige and the carpet was deep white. It was marvellous. The only time I had ever seen a room as nice as this was when we accidentally subscribed to "Best Homes Weekly".

I slowly stepped into the room. _My_ room. I silently put my bags over in the corner and sat on the edge of the bed. For the first time since I entered it, I looked properly at my surroundings.

In the corner, next to where I had set my luggage down, was a small desk. To the right of it, there was a huge flat screen TV, and a comfy looking couch resting against the wall with the window. Next to my queen sized bed there were two night stands, each with their own lamp.

I got up slowly and walked over to the window. I guess it was just luck that a got a room with a view. I could easily see the whole pool area, along with all the guys there, but it just wasn't that interesting for me. I paced over to my bags and began to unpack.

…………………………………………………..

It wasn't that long until I heard a hard knock at the door. I had no problem guessing who it was- Rosalie must still be angry at Alice. I hoped up and ran to the door, opening it quickly.

Rosalie stomped into my room and threw herself down on my bed. She was now wearing a knee length hot pink sundress with a pair of designer glasses.

"So Rosalie, what's up?"

"I can't see any boys from my room, so I'm going to the pool, you wanna come?" she asked. I was genuinely amazed that she would ask me, _me_, to go with her.

"What about Alice?" I asked. Right on cue, Alice jumped through the door and landed gracefully next to Rosalie on my bed.

"What about me?" she asked with a sad pout on her face. I was about to tell her before Rosalie interrupted me.

"Well Alice" she sneered her name, "Me and my bud Bella are going to the pool, because all I've got is a rubbish view of the sea". Alice's smile grew exponentially during Rosalie's rant. It was obvious that she was still psyched about her view.

"Well Rosalie" Alice said, copying Rosalie's tone, "That's just too bad because _my _bud Bella where going to go and watch all the hot guys at the pool through my window". At that, Rosalie's mouth had gone from tight smile to a perfectly formed 'O'.

"You…" was all she was able to get out before she stomped out of my room. Alice and I turned to face each other slowly.

I couldn't hold in my laugh at her expression. She looked as though she wasn't sure whether to laugh at Rosalie's loss of words or feel annoyed that she had left without her.

Her mouth was hanging in between a smile and a shocked 'O', her eyebrows were raised and her forehead was crinkled. She looked hilarious. I feel about laughing and due to my incredible clumsiness, bashed my head against the side of the bed.

…………………………………………………………………….

It was about an hour after my 'accident' that Alice finally announced that she was bored of watching TV and was going to get her bikini on.

"Please Bella, it'll be so much fun!" she pleaded. I couldn't resist her puppy dog eyes, so in the end I agreed with her. When she was gone, I swiftly sorted through my drawer of clothes and pulled out my only swimsuit.

It was a just plain black bikini, but it was my favourite thing to wear. There was nothing to trip over or stumble on when you're wearing a bikini. I quickly put it on and threw on one of my dad's old shirts to walk to the pool in.

Alice was back in fifteen minutes to the second. Poor little Alice walked in, took one look at me, and looked like she was about to have a stroke.

"What are you wearing?!" she shouted at me. Obviously she wasn't a big fan of my dad's old clothes.

"Um, a shirt?" I said, knowing this wasn't the answer she was looking for. She raised her eyebrows at me and then shook her head. She reached out for my hand and pulled me along to her room, muttering unintelligibly.

She ran into her room and pulled out all her clothes. When most of her room was covered with them, she finally found one that she liked.

"Here, go try this on" she demanded. She handed me a piece of white fabric and I went straight to her bathroom to put it on, trying not to upset her even more. I threw it on quickly and looked at myself in the mirror. It looked quite good on me.

I was wearing a knee length, see through, white shirt. It showed of a bit of my bikini but not all of it. I walked out slowly into the other room to show Alice. She looked skeptically at me and shook her head.

"It's not _perfect_" she sighed, "but it'll have to do, I want to see those hot guys up close before they leave". With that she turned on her heel and marched out the door. I followed her, quickly grabbing my flip-flops on the way out.

………………………………………………………………………

It turns out that after Rosalie had stormed out of Alice's room, instead of going back to her own one, she had come to the pool on her own. She was now lying on a comfy looking lounge chair, totally surrounded by all the 'hot guys'.

Alice basically shoved past anyone in her way to get to Rosalie. She darted up to her and I was right behind her.

"Hey Rosalie, Dave just called, he wants you to know that he misses you and he'll see you soon" Alice said sweetly along with a perfect faked smile. Rosalie glared up at Alice as all the guys, realizing rose wasn't single, retreated.

"Alice, what did you do that for!" she hissed. Alice just stuck her tongue out and reached over to get a lounge chair as well, and pulled it right up against Rosalie's.

"That was for ditching me and Bella and for stealing all the hot guys away"

Rosalie and Alice sat rigidly and silently for the rest of the hour we were there. Occasionally Alice would comment on one of the hot guys, saying he had cute hair, cute eyes, cute whatever. I was the one to finally break the silence between them.

"Guys, if you don't stop this right now, I'm not going to talk to either one of you either!" I told them. Neither of them made a move to forgive one another, so I guess my plan had backfired on me. Nobody was talking.

Eventually we all packed away our things and made our way back to the rooms. I slammed the door close, catching my thumb in it by accident. I dropped my stuff on the desk and ran some cold water over my throbbing thumb. I didn't think it would work, but surprisingly it worked very well indeed. My thumb was better in no time.

I spent the rest of the evening sitting alone on my bad, watching a couple of old movies on TV. I was dreading tomorrow. It would be our first day of work, and after today, I wasn't looking forward to it.


	5. Hershey's Kisses

**Disclaimer: Still Dont own Twilight guys, dont sue me! thank you.**

When I woke up it was barely dawn, but I could see the sun rising through my window. I had obviously been asleep when the boat left because now we were cruising smoothly across the calm ocean. I rolled over onto my back and took a deep breath before getting up for a shower.

I plodded tiredly to the bathroom and grabbed a T-shirt and some underwear. My shower usually calmed me down, but I couldn't help but be anxious. It was my first day of work ever for crying out loud! I just hoped that Alice and Rosalie would be on better terms today.

After I got out o quickly threw on my underwear and my T-shirt and went to go get a pair of shorts. As I opened the door, I was momentarily blinded by a blur of dark blue. I flailed about as I tried to knock the thing off of me. I finally felt something and tugged it off my face roughly.

It was a dark blue skirt accompanied by a white, long sleeved blouse.

"I got your uniform for you" Alice grumbled into my pillow, probably still angry at me from yesterday.

With a sigh I reluctantly went to go put my work uniform on. It looked quite good on me. The blouse fit me rather well, showing off a couple of my curves, maybe a little too many for my liking though. The skirt was a reasonable length, coming to a stop barely above my knee.

I sauntered out of the bathroom and into an unexpected hug. I looked down and saw Alice squeezing the living daylight out of me.

"Alice" I barely managed to choke out "Can't…_ breathe"_. She heard me and thankfully released her grasp by the smallest amount imaginable.

"I'm sorry Bella I was such an idiot yesterday. Will you forgive me?" she asked, pouting. I couldn't even bring myself to _consider_ it. I was like putty in her hands.

"Of course I will Alice, it was all my fault anyway" I said

"Bella, it was not your fault it was Rosalie's and mine completely. Now stop blaming yourself and stand back, I want to see how you look in your uniform" she ordered sternly.

I complied immediately, taking two steps back. Alice walked around me slowly, examining my outfit. Occasionally she would lean in and tilt my skirt one way, then the other. She would tuck my shirt in and then pull it back out again. In the end she found out that my shirt was best un-tucked with my skirt straight. She let out a short sigh and fell onto my bed.

"How do I look" I asked curiously. As I went to go look at myself in the mirror I thought I heard Alice say "Great", but I wasn't entirely sure. When I stepped into the bathroom I gaped at myself. With a few careful adjustments, Alice had transformed my ordinary work uniform into a work of art. It looked amazing.

"Alice" I yelled. She came tumbling into the bathroom, thinking something was wrong.

"Bella what is it? Don't complain, you know you look fabulous in that uniform" she said nervously. I was surprised that _I_ could make Alice nervous. I bit back a smile and decided to play around with her a bit.

"Alice, why did you do this it looks horrible!" I complained, feigning anger. She looked up at me with big, wide eyes and blinked in astonishment. She looked down and mumbled 'sorry' before she hastily left the bathroom. Of course I felt bad immediately and decided to end it. "I mean, how am I supposed to look bad if you keep trying to make me look amazing?!" I cried exasperatedly, walking into my room.

As soon as Alice heard what I said she narrowed her eyes at me and clenched her fists. So maybe pretending to be angry wasn't the best idea.

She stalked over to me and looked as though she was about to explode.

"A... Alice" I stuttered. She advanced on me, her eyes narrowing to slits, when finally she spoke.

"How dare you!" she screamed playfully and attacked me with a hug. After a couple minutes of brutal suggestions for making it up to her, I decided it was time to go.

"I mean, if you really want to make me feel better we could…" I cut her off just in time.

"Alice, wow look at the time, we're going to be late!" I gasped. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened in mock shock. I laughed at her expression and grabbed her hand, pulling her though the door.

………………………………………………………………………..

Alice and I actually had to run most of the way to get to the main deck in time. When we arrived there weren't that many people there. Maybe it had something to do with the ridiculously early hour. I mean, who _volunteers_ to get up at seven a.m! Oh wait, me. Alice skipped of to go and meet new people without me, saying that I was too grumpy in the morning. _She _obviously had no problem with the early hour.

I stumbled the rest of the way, and after ten minutes, I eventually found a very annoyed Alice.

"Why are people always so grumpy in the morning" she mumbled to herself, looking particularly downcast. I walked over to her and leaned against the wall opposite her.

"Alice" I sighed. With that she came over and gave me a hug, apologizing for being so 'awake' as she put it. I laughed and told her it wasn't her fault, and we went to go and join the growing crowd of people.

We were stood there clutching each other, shivering madly, for half an hour. Obviously whoever had planned this meeting wasn't very organized. During that half an hour, a couple more people had shown up.

Now, standing around the main deck, were Alice and I, a nice looking girl with long brown hair, a nerdy looking guy with glasses and a very sad afro, two girls who where standing right in the middle of the deck, showing off their fashionably tight winter clothes, and a boy who looked like he had won the lottery the second he caught sight of Alice and I.

I was about to suggest to Alice that we move somewhere else, but the boy came to an abrupt stop right in front of us, making it impossible to escape.

"Hey" he said. He was wearing the uniform, a green shirt with navy trousers, he had bright blue eyes and incredibly white blond hair. He looked so full of himself; this was going to be fun.

"Hi" I whispered back seductively. Alice's eyes shot up to mine and I tried to convey the message, _it's fun._ She got it amazingly quickly and slowly placed a hand on his arm. "So, what's your name?" I asked.

"M…Mike" he stuttered.

"Mike. That's a nice name isn't it Alice?"

"Yes, Deliciously so" she muttered into his ear. I had to hold in a laugh at his face. It was a cross between victorious and terrified.

"Now Alice, be careful with our new friend. You wouldn't want to _scare_ him away now" I said playfully, placing my palm on his chest. I felt his heart beating rapidly and his breathing become uneven.

"No, of course, we wouldn't want that, would we mike?" she asked.

"N...N…No, of course not" he stuttered again, his voice breaking slightly. I smiled idly, working my hand into his hair, which was not the best idea because it was full of gooey and disgusting gel.

"Oh, Bella, Look at the time, we're going to be late!" Alice shouted in mock annoyance. The moment I had heard Alice say that I say Mike's face fall a substantial amount.

"Oh Alice!" I said, trying to sound disappointed. I looked up at mike through my eyelashes and pulled my hand out of his slimy, disgusting hair, discreetly wiping it on the back of his shirt. "Bye mike" I said sadly.

"Wait!" Alice screamed. "Close your eyes mike" she commanded. Mike obeyed instantaneously and muttered something along the lines of 'about time'. Alice leaned in close to him and for a minute I actually believed she was going to kiss him, before she pulled away and placed a small object in his pocket. She turned around and mouthed 'let's go'. I ran after her to the other side of the deck and fell on the floor laughing.

"Alice?" I said, in between laughing fits, "What did you put in his pocket?" I asked.

"A…a…a" she said still laughing, "A Hershey's kiss!" she screamed, and with that I fell to the floor and started laughing again.

**A/N: okay guys, hang in there, the guys are coming SOON! **


	6. The Ballroom

**Disclaimer: Still don't own twilight guys, don't sue. thanks.**

It turns out we were in the wrong place all along. After Alice and I had recovered from our multiple laughing fits, a man in a white suit came up and told us the meeting had been moved.

"I'm very sorry for any inconvenience" he apologized again for the hundredth time, as we entered the, could you believe it, ballroom. I mean, why does a boat have a _ballroom_? For balls of course, Alice had told me.

It was extravagantly decorated. Alice told me that it was done by the owner's wife.

"Why'd she spend so much time decorating a boat?" I asked.

"Because" was all Alice had said. Sometimes that little pixie girl was dead annoying. There was already a crowd there- all of the other employees by the looks of what they were wearing. I scanned the room and saw Mike in the distance, talking to the two girls that we saw earlier.

"He's such a loser" Alice sighed, plopping herself down on a chair in the corner of the room. I sat on the arm and leaned into her.

"Yeah" I agreed. Apparently we weren't the only group that had gone to the wrong place, there were supposed to be five other meetings that no one had bothered to cancel. _Five!_ While we sat there, something entered my line of view. Tall, Blond hair, amazingly beautiful, It was Rosalie.

"Alice, Its Rosalie!" I hissed. Alice looked up excitedly and saw Rosalie as well. She was just about to get up when she flopped back down into the chair. "What happened?" I asked, frustrated. Alice was so stubborn.

"She doesn't forgive us" She whispered into my ear. She looked genuinely sad at this news, her eyes watering slightly.

"Alice, just go say hi to her" I told her.

"But she won't listen" she hissed back. I crossed my arms and jumped off the arm.

"Fine" I said, "Ill do it". With that I trudged over to Rosalie and tapped her on the back. She turned around quickly and embraced me in a hug.

"Bella!" she squealed.

"Hey Rosalie, long time no see" I said smiling.

"I'm so sorry about yesterday, I was so stupid" she explained.

"No Rosalie, it was my fault. If I hadn't said I wouldn't talk to you either, it wouldn't have been so bad". She hugged me again and wiped her eyes.

"Where's Alice?" she asked. I pointed to Alice, sitting alone on the big armchair in the corner of the room. Rosalie then ran over to her incredibly fast, considering she was wearing high heeled flip flops. "Alice!" I heard her screech. I bit back a laugh as Alice flung herself at Rosalie.

"See, I told you!" I screamed at her and jumped into the hug as well. Unfortunately because of that, we all ended up falling off the chair into a ginormus heap on the floor, laughing wickedly.

I gazed around and saw that most of the people in the ballroom were looking at us. I felt the familiar heat enter my cheeks and I stood up and sat on the chair again.

"Awwww look Alice, we made her blush!" Rosalie cooed. My cheeks, if it was possible, got even redder.

"Bella! You know how good that blush would go with blue! You're like a walking make-up kit" she screamed.

"Alice" I hissed, "everyone's looking at me".

"Fine, I'll be quiet" she whispered.

"Thanks" I said.

"Eh-hem, can I have your attention please" someone said over the microphone. "I'm sorry for all the inconvenience caused, we've been having trouble with hooligans" he said firmly. "My name is Jacob and I'm going to be your boss for the next three months". This was followed by a range of coughs and sneezes and very slow, unenthusiastic clapping.

"Yes, well may I please introduce you to the one, the only Elizabeth Cullen" he said clapping enthusiastically. This time a couple more people clapped as well, including Alice, Rosalie and I.

"Thank you Jacob" she said. She had long bronze hair and Bright green eyes, she was beautiful. What was it with all of these beautiful people I kept meeting?

"So basically all of you are going to be helping around the boat. There will be shifts that you will each take and you will get paid every month. Now for the best part" she smiled. "You will all get to use the pool for free!" She shouted. This was met with a brilliant amount of noise form the clapping and shouting from the crowd.

"Thank you and have a pleasant stay" she concluded, leaving the stage.

"Thank you Mrs. Cullen. Now if you'll all please form an orderly line, I'll hand out your shifts and information booklets" Jacob ordered. Of course, nobody listened to him and everybody crowded around, pushing and shoving to get theirs first.

Alice, Rosalie and I stayed seated on the chair and waited till everyone had gone. Jacob spotted us over there and ran over.

"Thank you so much for not being part of that mob" he said gratefully, as he handed us our booklets.

"Oh, I've got Bar duty" Alice said, sounding disappointed. I knew she wanted life guard duty.

"So have I!" Rosalie said excitedly. The two of them started to do their own version of a little happy dance as I opened mine.

"And would you believe it?" I asked them, showing them my shifts timetable. Their eyes widened and they screamed so loudly I could have sworn I heard glass break.

"You're on bar duty too!" they screamed together. They hugged me and once again we fell to a heap on the floor.

"I hope your not going to make a habit of this" Jacob chuckled. I looked up and once again felt the blush rise to my cheeks.

"Thanks" I said, shaking his hand.

"No problem, this was the only thing I could do to thank you for staying out of that mob remember?" he asked

"I'd never thought I'd see the day that I'd be grateful that I was so lazy" Rosalie said. We fell down laughing again and Jacob helped me up.

"So, we'd better get to work then girls" I said, pulling them up as well. We linked arms and walked slowly out of the ballroom.

"Bye Jacob!" we all shouted together.


	7. Numbers

**Diclaimer: Don't own Twilight, please dont sue. thanks.**

We walked arm in arm over to the restaurant. Well actually it was more of a Dance club, but that's what they liked to call it. It had a couple of tables set at the back of the room, but most of it was dance floor, and there was a huge bar running across the length of the room.

"Wow" we breathed. Someone noticed us and walked over silently.

"Hi, I'm Tyler and I'm in charge of the bar area" he explained. I shook his hand and gave him my booklet so he could check it.

"I'm Bella, This is Rosalie" I said pointing to her, "and this is Alice".

"Welcome all of you. Normally we only allow two people on bar duty, but this year we're one short so you guys are lucky" he said. "So this" he gestured to the bar, "Is where you'll be working. You'll be waitresses".

We stood there gaping at him.

"Waitresses!" Alice shrieked. "But it says bar duty, _BAR_ duty!"

"I know, but the higher ups normally take care of the drinks and we just need someone to give them out" he explained calmly. We all nodded dejectedly and took our new waitress uniform. This was the only job that required a change of clothes.

"I look like a slut!" I screeched. The very see through blouse only had buttons up to the middle of my chest, making it _very_ easy to see my cleavage and the skirt barely covered my bum.

"Oh, stop complaining Bella" Alice snapped. I turned away from her; at least she was happy with showing off herself. I heard Rosalie snickering in the corner as I tried to pull my skirt down without pulling it off.

"Come on Bella lets get to work" Rosalie said, still giggling slightly. I walked out of the girls' bathroom and was greeted by the still empty restaurant. We saw Tyler in the corner, cleaning out some glasses. Without looking up he started talking to us.

"Right so Rosalie, you'll take care of the far side of the restaurant, Alice the other side, and Bella you'll take the bar, are you guys alright with that?" he asked looking up. As he took us in, His eyes widened to the point that you'd think they were going to fall out, his mouth popped open and he gaped openly at us. I cursed Alice and Rosalie for making me get out of that bathroom.

"Yep, that'd be fine" Rosalie chimed. He nodded his head and took a deep breath.

"Okay then, we'll be opening up soon, so I'd suggest you just take a break before you have to be running all over the place"

"Thank you Tyler" we said as he disappeared into the back of the bar.

"So" Alice said, leaning in "Looks like we're going to be having a bit of fun today".

"What do you mean?" I asked her. Rosalie's eyes we're gleaming so I supposed she already knew what they were going to do.

"It's a competition, Rose and I used to do it all the time" Alice explained.

"What are the rules then?"

"Well, by the end of the night, you have to see how many number's you've gotten. No asking, no interacting" she whispered

"No interacting? At all?" I asked.

"Not in the slightest".

"And what's the prize" I whispered back

"We'll start with something small okay?" she muttered "The winner gets to choose a person for each of the loser's to kiss?"

"No!" I hissed

"Yes!" Rose and Alice giggled together.

"So, do you want to play?" she asked devilishly. Rose put her hand in the middle, followed by Alice.

"Fine" I said, putting my hand on top of theirs. I heard Tyler yelling in the distance

"We're opening" he called.

"This is going to be fun" Rosalie smiled.

…………………………………………………………

This _was_ fun. At first I was a bit worried, what with the uniforms and all of that, that people would get the wrong idea, and don't get me wrong some of them did, but some were really nice. So far I had gotten 24 numbers and it was only 7:30pm.

I hadn't bothered to ask rose and Alice how much they'd gotten cause I knew they'd have way more than me. It really helped that they were in the crowded area. I just hoped I wouldn't loose.

**Alice****'s POV**

This was one of the best games of 'numbers' I had ever played. When rose and I used to do it we only got about 10 each but, wow, I was absolutely raking them in, and I already had 24.

I'm brilliant.

I wondered around the restaurant looking for some more suckers. Just the normal kind of people- old, rich, in other words boring. I was close to the door when I saw a tall blond man walk in. he was alone and he sat down at one of the tables near me.

He leant back in his chair and absently ruffled his hair. I gaped at him. This had to be the most handsome man I had ever seen in my whole entire life. He looked up and waved me over, smiling.

Oh crap.

"Can I get a glass of water, please?" he asked. His voice had the tiniest bit of a southern accent in it.

"Sure" I smiled. His smile widened at the sight of mine, and then he went back to leaning in his chair. I walked over to Tyler and asked him for the water.

"That guy over there?" he asked, pointing to the blond man.

"Yes" I whispered, I hoped he couldn't hear how much my voice was trembling.

"I've seen him round here before" Tyler told me, "His parents are good friends with the owners of this company"

"Do you know what his name is?" I asked quietly.

"Jasper Whitlock he's called" Tyler whispered back. Jasper. It was perfect.

"Thank you" I whispered to Tyler as he handed me the glass of water. I walked slowly over to him, memorizing his face.

"Here you go" I mumbled quietly, smiling.

"Thank you..." he said squinting, "You don't have a name tag" he said, sounding surprised.

"They spelt my name wrong. I mean how you can spell a name like 'Alice' wrong is beyond me" I told him.

"Well" he said, taking a sip of his water, "Your going to need to tell me that story sometime, Alice" he said smiling. He downed the rest of his water in one gulp and stood up. He nodded at me and walked out of the restaurant.

"Bye" I whispered.

**Rosalie's ****POV **

It had been a fun day. It was better playing this game with Bella. I was definitely going to win. It was only 7:30 and I had gotten 24 numbers! When I did it with Alice the highest I ever got was 18 and that was when I had stayed till 5 in the morning.

I was in the middle of clearing a table when somebody tapped me on the back.

"Hey" he said. it was that blond guy that had been trying to talk to me when I was sunbathing next to all those hot guys.

"Hi" I winced. He was incredibly smelly, why didn't I notice this before.

"I'm Mike, do you remember me?" he asked, grabbing my hand.

"I...uh... Listen mike I gotta go" I told him. I really _didn't _want his number.

"Why?" he asked, moving closer to me. Boy if this guy wasn't careful he'd end up with a broken nose.

"Look, just take one step back, let me go, and nobody gets hurt" I hissed through my teeth.

"And why would I do that?" Mike whispered into my ear. I had to get away from him before I killed him.

"Eh-hem" I heard someone cough. I looked up and there was a huge guy behind mike. I would have smiled if I weren't so disgusted. Mike turned around slowly and took in the guy behind him.

"I think she asked you to step away" he growled. Mike backed up slowly and then stepped in front of him.

"What if I don't want to?" Mike said angrily.

"Well then…" the big guys said, pretending to think. Then without any warning at all, he slid his foot across the floor, tripping Mike up. I looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back and took my hand.

"Come on, lets get you away from him" he mumbled.

When we were a safe distance away from him, he turned around and let go of my hand.

"Thank you" I said, "but I didn't need your help, I was just about to give him a nice punch on the nose"

"Sure you were" he said, holding back a laugh. "See you round then?" he asked

"Maybe" I replied, turning my back on him as he walked out of the restaurant.

As I resumed cleaning the table I heard a couple of guys murmuring behind me.

"Did you see who that was?" one guys said in awe.

"I think I did, but it wouldn't have been him, would it?" the other said

"I think it was" The awed guy said.

"Wow" the other guy said. I was getting tired of this.

"Who was that guy?" I asked them.

"_That_, was Emmett McCarty"

**Bella's ****POV **

It was beginning to get dark now. I looked over towards the clock. 9:30. we closed at ten and I only had 28 numbers, I hoped that would be enough. The crowd had gone down significantly since 8:00. Now there were just a couple of young guys left who were drinking their share of alcohol in muted chatter.

I saw Alice and Rosalie in the distance, still wiping up tables and getting beers for a couple of people. I leaned against the bar and closed my eyes, hoping that Tyler would decide to close down the restaurant early. I heard someone open the door and walk over to the bar. I wished Tyler would get that, seeing that I was too tired to move at all.

"Hello" a musical voice said. It was the single most brilliant sound I had ever heard. I opened my eyes and found a pair of perfect green eyes.

"Hi" I said quietly, "what can I get you?" I asked him.

"Cream soda Please" he said politely. As I wondered around to the back of the bar to get him his cream soda, I couldn't help but be curious. Why would this beautiful guy go to a restaurant at 9:45pm to get a cream soda? It just didn't make sense.

"Here you go" I said, as I handed him his cream soda. He didn't say anything else as he took a sip and leaned against the bar, so I went back to my earlier position, closing my eyes again. I tried to relax so that as soon as I walked out of that door, I'd be ready to fall asleep. I decided to try and count the sounds in the room. Rosalie's High-heels, His Sipping, Alice's flats, His sipping, Tyler's footsteps, His _breathing. ._Before I knew it all I was listening to was him.

"Thank you" he said, as I heard him pull out from the bar. I opened my eyes to see him leave.

"Your welcome" I said, as he walked out the door.

**A/N: So there you go, your first glimpse of the guys! yep and we're gonna be seeing a lot more of them in the future. **

**Please review guys, they make the world go round!**


	8. Numbers Part 2

**Diclaimer: I dont own twilight. Dont sue me. Thanks.**

**A/N: okay, so i thought it would be cool to write the last chapter in the guy's POV's. So tell me what you think, okay?**

"Right girls, we're closing up now!" Tyler called. I was still in my relaxing position, inches from sleep. "Thanks for working so well you guys, see you tomorrow" and with that he jumped over the counter and walked out of the restaurant. I waited till Alice and Rosalie had their stuff ready before I finally moved from my position.

We walked back to our rooms in comfortable silence. It seemed like Alice and Rosalie had something on their mind as well. We arrived at Rosalie's room first. I was just about to pass hers and keep walking when something grabbed me by the shoulder.

"Hey" I muttered slightly incoherent.

"Bella, its not sleepy time yet!" Alice whispered to me. I grudgingly walked into Rosalie's room and collapsed on the bed.

"So" Rosalie started, "How many did you get Alice?"

"24" she said proudly. I gaped at her, I got 28.

"Same as me!" Rosalie cheered. Then suddenly they both looked at me. You know in those movies where everyone turns to look at you at exactly the same time? Well this is exactly what they did.

"So Bella" Alice said

"How many did you get" Rosalie added.

"28" I mumbled as quietly as I could.

"What?" they asked.

"28" I said marginally louder.

"Bella! I can't hear what you're saying" Rose exclaimed shoving her ear into my face.

"28!" I yelled into it. She recoiled away from me immediately.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Payback" I said simply.

"You got 28!" Alice screamed. She knew what was going to happen now. "Please" Alice said. I knew she was trying to get me to be nice about who I picked but I wasn't going to. I smiled at them.

"Psh, beginner's luck" Rosalie muttered. I was going to have fun tonight.

"So Rosalie, any guy _you're_ interested in kissing?" I asked her. She looked distracted for a moment and then she answered me.

"Not really, I don't know anyone here" she said, trying to sound disappointed.

"Alice?" I said. She looked distracted as well.

"Hmm" she asked. I obviously wasn't going to get anywhere with this so I decided I'd choose on my own. I jumped off of the bed and stretched.

"So anything else you guys want to do before I go to bed?" I asked them. They both looked like they were trying to decide on something but they weren't sure about it.

"I…uh…no" Rosalie and Alice said together. Alice jumped off the bed and opened the door for me.

"Night" I said to rose before closed the door.

"Night" she whispered back. Alice and I walked in silence again to her room. She still looked like something was bothering her.

"Are you okay Alice?" I asked her.

"Hmm, I'm fine" she said scowling. Sometimes that little pixie was strange.

"Night" I said again as we approached her room.

"Night" she mumbled back.

……………………………………………………………….

**Edward's POV **

It was just after 7:30pm and jasper and I were still in the room.

"What do you think he's up to?" jasper asked me.

"I don't know, probably drinking again" I sighed. Well one of my best friends had to be a drinker. Emmett and jasper had been my friends for as long as I could remember. It was just meant to be. Jasper's parents, the Whitlock's, were great friends with my parents and Emmett's father was a famous director in Hollywood and his mother was my mother's best friend.

"Should I go get him?" jasper asked, breaking me out of my reverie. I didn't see the point really. Emmett would just be drinking and he'd get jasper a drink and then jasper would start drinking and then I'd have to get my sober butt up there to go get them.

"Sure, suit yourself" I said, "Just don't drink any alcohol" I added as he walked out the door.

"Ay-ay sir" he saluted. I laughed to myself. I wasn't the one in charge, I wasn't even the oldest, I was the youngest of my friends, but sometimes they'd treat me like I was in charge. It was like their little joke; their way of saying I was the baby of the group. I sighed and turned on the T.V. This was going to be a long night.

**Jasper's POV **

I walked into the Restaurant, still smiling. Edward was my best friend and I always tried to make him feel included, even if it was a joke. I scanned the bar for Emmett, coming up empty. While I was scanning I saw a short girl in a waitress's uniform. _Finally!_ they'd gotten some new waitresses. The old ones where a bit hard on the eyes.

I walked over to a table by the door and sat down. I waved the short girl over to me and nearly choked. She was wearing the waitress's uniform, which were an incredibly short skirt and a slutty top. I could see her brilliant legs under that mini skirt and it had to be illegal or something for her to wear a top like that. She was standing right next to the table, so I had to say something. I gulped and took a deep breath.

"Can I get a glass of water please?" I said. _Crap, _what happened to my voice, was my accent is coming back?

"Sure" she said, smiling at me. I couldn't help but smile right back at her, she was so beautiful. I couldn't help but stare at her as she walked back to the bar. My eyes travelled down her back to her long looking legs and then up again to her barely covered… _STOP! _I ordered my mind.

Soon she came back with my water.

"Here you go" she mumbled smiling.

"Thank you…" I said, looking her in the eyes. Unfortunately _my_ eyes had a plan of their own as they started to travel down to her chest. After a couple of seconds I remembered what I was doing and where I was. I quickly squinted and pretended to be looking for a name tag. I was surprised that I didn't find one, but I was glad I could talk to her some more.

"You don't have a name tag" I said. How stupid was I, of course she knew she didn't have a name tag.

"They spelt my name wrong. I mean how you can spell a name like 'Alice' wrong is beyond me" she told me. So her name was Alice eh? It suited her.

"Well" I said, taking a sip of my water, "Your going to need to tell me that story sometime, Alice" i said smiling. I really just wanted to see her again. I quickly downed the rest of the water in one gulp and stood up. I nodded at her and walked out of the restaurant.

"Bye" I heard her whisper.

"Bye" I mumbled after the door had closed.

**Emmett's POV **

I was sitting with a couple of my dad's friends, having a beer. I wasn't going to spend all day cooped up in that tiny room just cause Eddie and Jazz didn't drink. I took another gulp of my beer, just as I saw jasper walk into the restaurant. I hadn't told them where I was going. Well I guess they just knew me too well.

"Hey guys" I whispered, trying not to draw any attention towards me, "Cover me" I said as I slipped under the table. I saw jazz's feet wander over to a table near the door and I reckoned it would be safe to come out now. Being very sneaky, I slid back up into my seat. I watched him as a little girl came and gave him some water and then as he left.

At least I wouldn't be bothered by them for another couple of hours.

"I...uh... Listen mike I gotta go" I heard a voice say. I turned around and saw another waitress. She was being harassed by the annoying blond guy living next to us.

"Why?" he asked, moving closer to her. This had to stop. I got up and stood behind him

"Eh-hem" I said. The girl looked up at me and her face was disgusted. This was worse than I thought. The guy looked up next and raised his eyebrows at me.

"I think she asked you to step away" I growled. He backed up; he looked like he was pretty scared of me. But then I saw something blaze in his eyes- Determination.

"What if I don't want to?" he asked angrily. This guy was definitely in trouble now.

"Well then…" I said. I dragged my foot underneath him and tripped him up. She looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back, glad to have helped her. I took her hand and led her away from the moaning guy on the floor.

"Come on, lets get you away from him" I mumbled.

When we were a safe distance away from him, I turned around and let go of her hand.

"Thank you" she said, "but I didn't need your help, I was just about to give him a nice punch on the nose"

"Sure you were" I said, holding back a laugh. "See you round then?" I asked. I had just realised how beautiful she was. That slutty looking shirt showed off her cleavage just right and that mini skirt had my mouth watering. No wonder that mental guy wanted her so much. I was desperate not to leave, but I had to tell the guys about this.

"Maybe" she said. I took that as a yes and made my way out of the restaurant. Wait till I tell the guys about this.

………………………………………………………………………..

**Edward's POV **

I had laid there on the bed watching TV for no more an hour before jasper came back, huffing and puffing and coughing all over the place.

"Whoa, jasper what happened?" I asked. He wasn't usually like this when he got drunk.

"I...Uh…I" he said, running his hand's through his hair, A habit that he had picked up from me.

"Jasper calm down" I said putting my hands up slowly. I had to bite back a smile at jasper's face. "Come sit down" I said patting the bed, "Tell me what happened". Jeez I was starting to sound like a therapist.

"I…uh…I...I...I" he said. It looked like he was having trouble speaking. _Crap_ I hoped they hadn't drugged his drink or something, I had told them those waitresses were dodgy.

"Was it your drink?" I asked. I had my phone in my hand, ready to call my dad if I needed to. My uncle was a doctor and my dad knew quite a lot about that kind of stuff too.

"No" jasper said. He looked calm again. What was with this boy and his mood swings?

"Tell me what happened" I said sternly, I needed to know if he was in any danger.

"I…I uh went to the restaurant" he said nodding and gulped, "I was looking for Emmett and then i... uh…" he trailed off. He was gulping again and I was getting worried.

"Jasper" I said clicking my fingers in front of his face, "You need to tell me"

"There… there was this table" he gulped; "I ordered water and the waitress..." he gulped again.

"Jasper, if you don't tell me I'm going to call my dad" I told him. He shook his head violently. "Tell me then" I said calmly.

"The waitress was amazing" he said. He stopped gulping and stammering once he said this. "I went to look for Emmett and I couldn't find him and I sat down at this table and the waitress, Alice her name was, came and she gave me water" He said.

I took a deep breath and sank into the armchair in the corner of the room.

"Jasper, don't do that again, you scared the hell out of me" I complained.

"Sorry" he gulped. Immediately after he said that, someone else came barging in. just my luck to have a supposedly drugged friend walk in, only to be mesmerised by a waitress, and a friend probably drunk to the point of throwing up, barge in as well.

"Emmett look, Jasper's just come in and scared the hell out of me, I don't need you barfing on the furniture" I said, frustrated.

"No look I only had one beer" he said happily.

"So you came all the way back from the bar to tell us you've only had one beer?" I asked incredulously.

"No… I…there was this Girl" he stammered. Not again.

"Look does, it have anything to do with a girl named Alice?" I asked him.

"No… I... uh don't actually know what her name was" he said.

"So you don't know if it was Alice or not?" I said.

"No… but it wasn't the girl that jasper was talking to because she was right down my end of the bar!" he said.

"Then enlighten us Emmett what is your miraculous story of self-discovery that made you leave after having only one beer" I sighed.

"Well I was sitting there drinking my beer and I heard this girl being harassed by that mental guy next door, so I went to go and see if she needed any help. And this guy was practically making out with her when I stepped in" he said.

"So how'd you know she wasn't enjoying herself?" jasper asked him.

"Cause I heard her threaten him now shut up or I'm not telling you the rest of the story" he said. Jasper shrugged and he continued.

"Well I knocked him over and took her away from him. And you know what the best bit was? She was drop dead gorgeous. I mean it; I think my heart may have stopped while I was with her" he muttered in awe.

"So my two best friends go out to the bar, on the first day of the cruise, and find the most beautiful women in the world all together in one place? That's impossible" I said.

"If you don't believe us, go find out for yourself" jasper said, smiling on my bed. Emmett was now leaning against the wall with the same smile as jasper's plastered to his face.

"Fine, see you guys later then" I said, as I marched out of the room.

………………………………………………………………..

I walked down to the deck to get to the restaurant. There was no way that there were two beautiful waitresses taking the place of those old eyesores. This was probably one of their games, something to make me feel stupid and small. I stomped up to the door and pushed it open. It was almost deserted in there except for a couple of beer addicts and a girl.

She was leaning lazily against the bar with her eyes closed. She looked so peaceful. I could now see why Emmett and Jasper were so amazed by the new waitresses. The waitress uniform that looked disfiguring on those old waitresses clung to her perfectly. The slutty looking tee-shirt looked amazing one her, giving a pretty good view of her chest. And that skirt made her legs look mouth-watering.

I gulped and slowly walked up to her, trying not to wake her. As I sat down, I saw a tiny crease appear in her brow. I didn't think she was sleeping.

"Hello" I whispered. She opened her eyes and I saw the most beautiful pair of brown eyes in the world. I just realised just how close to her I was. I leaned back.

"Hi" she whispered back, "What can I get you?"

"Cream Soda please" I said politely. I watched her as she wondered around in the back, getting my drinks ready. She came up with a glass full of it and handed it to me.

"Here you go" she said quietly. I took it from her and started sipping at it. She went back to her earlier position, resting against the bar with her eyes closed. I resisted the urge to stroke her shimmering brown hair, her soft cheek, her eyelids. Why did I want to do this? I had just met her, less than 5 minutes ago and I wanted to touch her? I shook myself and finished my soda.

"Thank you" I said quietly and I jumped off my chair, balling my hands in my pockets to keep from stroking her on the way out.

"Your welcome" I heard her say as I walked out of the bar. I smiled and ran the rest of the way back to my room.

…………………………………………………………….

"Look" I said, after explaining to the guys what I had done. "There are only two waitresses and there are three of us" I calculated.

"So one of us can't have her" jasper said. I looked around the room and nodded. All of us had the same look of desperation on our faces.

"No. there's gotta be another solution" Emmett argued.

"There's no other way" I said, depressed.

"No… But wait" Jasper said, sounding suddenly hopeful.

"What?" Emmett and I said at the same time.

"Well, we leave them alone and see which ones they choose" Jasper said, "It's the only way".

Emmett came over and patted me on the back.

"Sorry buddy, looks like your going to be left out" he said shrugging. I slapped his hand away.

"How do you know she wants to choose a muscle obsessed, beer drinking freak?!" I shouted at him.

"Whoa there, calm down guys" Jasper said, trying to stop us.

"How do you know she'd choose you Jasper? Who'd want to date a tall, blond maniac?" Emmett shouted at him. Soon enough we were all in a pile on the floor, shoving and punching each other. I was getting tired of this, obviously it wasn't the answer.

"Stop" I said. They kept on fighting. "Stop, stop it now!" I shouted at them. They froze on the floor and I pulled them up. "That's obviously not the preferred idea but it's the best we've got" I told them.

"Yeah, we'd better just wait and see how this turns out" Jasper said.

"How'd I know you guys won't go and tell them to choose you?" he demanded.

"We'll make rules" I said. It was so obvious, why didn't I think about it before?!

"Rules?" they asked.

"Yeah, you know like, no talking to them unless they talk to you. No discussing this arrangement stuff like that".

"Yeah that sounds okay" jasper nodded.

By the end of the night we had a list of rules that we had to follow and at the bottom, all of our signatures.

Let the Games begin.

**A/N: Thanks for reading guys, please review!**


	9. Mr Confidential

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Please dont sue me. Thanks**

**A/N: Okay, just incase you were confused, the guys think that there are only _two _waitresses because there has only ever been two, but this year they were one short so they decided to let there be three waitresses. So the guys think there are three of them and only two waitresses and because they are really dumb and won't talk to each other about it, they dont know that they've actually fallen for three different waitresses. i hope this clears things up.**

I woke up early again, but not as early as yesterday. The upside of having bar duty as a job was that the restaurant didn't open until 9:00am, to serve breakfast. I got up and took a shower and put my slutty uniform on. I bet the owner's wife didn't design these. I walked out of my bathroom and would you guess, rose and Alice were already on my bed talking.

"How'd you get an extra room key?" I asked them.

"It was easy" Alice said.

"Are you going to tell me how?" I asked. She thought about it and then a devilish smile creped across her face as she shook her head.

"Fine" I sighed, "Let's go to the restaurant". We walked slowly today, since we had half an hour until the restaurant opened. We chatted causally for a while before we went into silence again. It was the same kind of silence from last night, which made me wonder what they were thinking about. I was about to ask them before I was interrupted.

"Hey there you girls are mind if I walk with you?" Tyler asked. I nodded and said he could come along with us. He and I talked a bit while Alice and Rosalie kept up their silence. Tyler was the son of the Crowley's; they owned a huge department store in L.A.

"Why'd you get a job on a boat then?" I asked. Why would anyone want to work when they had oodles of cash lying around everywhere?

"I've always loved the sea and it far away enough from my parents that I don't have to visit them often" he told me.

"Ah" I said, "So you don't like your parents?"

"Well, I do, but they wanted me to stay in L.A and be rich and famous, but it was too far from what I loved" he said. I nodded. He must really love the sea to be able to live that far away from his parents. I was just going away for three months and I already missed my dad.

Tyler unlocked the door to the restaurant and we went to our usual places.

"So you want to play again?" Alice asked. I shook my head and so did Rosalie. I knew she only wanted to try to get me to loose this time. "You'll cave eventually, this game is too much fun to pass up" she warned.

I laughed and we heard Tyler say we were opening. It was going to be another long day.

……………………………………………….

**Emmett's POV **

When I woke up it was just past midday. We had slept over in Eddie's room last night because we were too tried to move. I fumbled around and managed to sit up. Jasper was still sleeping, half on the sofa, half on the floor. Eddie was starting to stir in his bed, hopefully cause of me.

"Eddie" I called quietly, trying not to wake jasper. He waved me off and I jumped up. I prodded him on the shoulder until he opened his eyes and looked at me.

"What the hell do you want Emmett I'm trying to sleep here" he said grumpily.

"I'm going down to the restaurant" I announced. With that he sat up and turned to look at me evilly.

"You can't" he whispered furiously, "You know the rules"

"But…" I whined. I really needed to go see that girl again.

"Emmett" he warned. I knew once little Eddie had decided against something, it was nearly impossible to accomplish it.

Nearly.

I quickly hopped over him to get my clothes and threw them on. I had the key in my hand and my phone in my pocket. I wasn't going to let him stop me.

"What are you going to do? Call your dad on me?" I taunted as I ran over to the door. He was up and in front of me before I realised.

"Emmett don't you dare" he hissed. He was blocking the door and there was no other way to get out. I figured I had to do something quickly, before jasper finally woke up.

"Eddie look, I'm not going to talk to her or do anything to her, I'm just going to go and observe her you know?" I told him

"That is wrong on so many levels Emmett" he hissed again. I didn't care if he thought I was wrong. I was dressed and he was still only in his boxers. Suddenly I had an Idea. If only I could get around him…

"Eddie look go check the rules, it's not against them" I said reassuringly. He nodded and moved away from the door, eyeing me. He reached over to get the rules and at that moment I threw open the door and ran outside. Eddie followed me of course running outside with only his boxers on.

"You liking the breeze Eddie boy?" I shouted back at him. He looked down and suddenly remembered that was all he had on. I looked around. There were a couple of families standing outside their rooms, staring wide-eyed at Eddie and I. he sprinted back to the room. "See you Eddie!" I shouted as I ran up to the elevator.

"My. Name. Isn't. Eddie!" he called back, infuriated. I laughed and hopped in the elevator.

……………………………………………………..

I walked down to the restaurant determined. I only had about 10 minutes before Eddie and jazz managed to pull themselves together and kidnap me back to the room. I was right on one account. It didn't say anywhere in the rules that I wasn't allowed to _observe _her. I had made a point not to include it.

As I neared the restaurant I recited them in my head.

No Interaction, unless they talk to you first.

Conversations are to be kept to a maximum of 2 minutes.

No mentioning of this arrangement at all.

No outside interactions allowed.

If they admit to choosing you, all of the above rules no longer apply.

I took a deep breath and opened the door. I could see the little waitress that jasper had been talking to, but no one else. I decided to try a bit further down the bar, near where I was sitting yesterday. I stumbled along and ordered a drink from Tyler. I thanked him and went to sit down.

I scanned the rest of the room. Still nothing. I had about 5 minutes until jazz and Eddie appeared. I had nearly given up when something tapped me on the back. I turned around quickly but I was disappointed. It was the short, pixie waitress instead.

"Can I refill your drink?" she asked me, something about her was strangely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"No, its okay, my friends are going to be showing up any minute to drag me back to the room" I told her laughing sadly.

"Why are they doing that?" she asked. Man this little one was annoying.

"I…I uh can't tell you. It's confidential" I said. She giggled and turned around.

"Okay then Mr. Confidential, I'll save a beer for you" she said. How in the world did she know I wanted a beer?

"Thanks" I muttered. She walked away and tidied some glasses up behind the bar. I turned back to my drink. I guess there was no point in coming here today, maybe it was her day off or something. Suddenly I felt tapping on my back again.

"Look, I don't want a refill" I told the little pixie girl. I turned around and I nearly blushed.

That's right, blushed!

It was the tall, blond waitress again. _please say something, please say something_ I chanted in my head. I really wanted to hear her voice again.

"Oh…Okay then" she said, sounding disappointed.

"Wait" I said grabbing her arm. That gesture was met with a hard smack across my arm. I let go immediately and started rubbing it.

"Oh" she whimpered, "I'm so sorry, here let me get some ice"

"No, its okay" I told her. I had never been hit this hard by a girl. I was surprised by how strong she was. "I see why you thought you could beat up that mike character" I said. She nodded and bit her lip.

"I'm sorry, please don't tell anyone, I'll get fired" she whispered. I mimed zipping my mouth up and handing her the key. She giggled and I smiled widely. I looked down at my watch. Crap, I only had 30 seconds left to talk to her.

"I... uh..." I had no idea what to say. I heard a huge crash come from behind the counter.

"Alice" she hissed. I nodded my head sadly and she ran over to the counter. So much for spending more time with her. Right on cue, Eddie and jazz walked into the restaurant.

Crap.

They looked pretty mad. Jasper's hair was still messy with sleep and Edward's expression was livid. They quickly crossed the room to where I was sitting and grabbed my arms.

They didn't say anything as they dragged me back to the room. It wasn't comfortable silence. It was tense enough that I could almost feel it radiating out of them. They dumped me on the bed and leaned against the wall on either sides of me. Eddie was pinching the bridge of his nose and jasper was counting to 10 under his breath.

We stayed like that a while, none of us wanting to be the fist to talk. Eventually I caved.

"So guys" I said, "Funny thing happened this morning didn't it?" That set them off.

"Emmett you are the most idiotic person I have ever had the displeasure to meet!" Edward shouted at me.

"How could you do that? You know the rules!" Jasper shouted as well. I decided to let them get it out of their systems before I spoke again.

……………………………………………………………….

After lots of screaming, shouting and cursing, they finally ran out of breath. Edward had gone back to pinching his nose and jasper was running his hands through his hair.

"Emmett, we made those rules for a reason! Why did you do that?!" he asked angrily.

"I didn't break the rules" I stated.

"Tell us how Emmett! How did you _not_ break the rules?" Edward shouted at me again.

"Well it doesn't say anywhere that I'm not allowed to _observe_ her, I only talked to her for a minute and a half and…" crap. I talked to her first.

"And?" jasper said.

"I… I talked to her first" I mumbled.

"See!" Edward shouted "I told you! We can't trust him"

"What are you going to do about it?" I challenged.

"Punishment" Jasper said darkly.

"What?!" I said alarmed. This was turning out to be something like a ridiculous sacred tradition or something.

"Every action has a consequence" Edward added. They crept in on me.

This was getting a bit freaky.

They grabbed me and sat on me so I couldn't 'escape' while they thought of something. I sat under them for who knows how long until jasper had an idea.

"I got it!" he announced. "We have to add 'no observing' to the list and..." he trailed off smiling. I looked up and saw Edward smiling as well.

"What? What is it?" I asked them. Suddenly it all added up. "No, please no" I plead.

"I'm sorry Emmett but it's the only way you'll learn" Edward said happily.

"You are not allowed to go to the restaurant for a week" jasper said.

"A week?!" why did I have to go today?!

"Yep a week, same goes for anyone else who breaks the rules" jasper said, scribbling down the new rules and the punishment. It was going to be a long week.

**You know what to do, please review!**


	10. The Accident Prone

**Disclaimer: I dont own twilight. dont sue me please. thank you.**

**Rosalie's POV **

I just had the chance to talk to Emmett and Alice just _had_ to go and smash all of those glasses. I quickly ran over to her to see if she needed any help.

"Alice" I said. I saw her little head poke up over the top of the counter.

"Hello" she said happily.

"What did you do that for?" I demanded.

"What did I do what for?" she asked, confused.

"You smashed all of those glasses!" I said pointing towards the mess on the floor.

"Oh, that wasn't me, it was Bella. She's gone to the bathroom to check out that cut on her cheek" she told me. Great, I had come over here for no reason. I was about to go and talk to Emmett, but I saw two other guys dragging him out.

"Right on cue" Alice said quietly. I wasn't even bothered to ask her what that meant.

"Is Bella okay?" I asked. Now that there was nothing else to focus on, I was suddenly worried about Bella.

"I don't know, you could go and check while I clean this up. Who knew she was so clumsy?" she chuckled. I walked around the back to the girl's bathroom and I found Bella sitting on the counter, with some toilet paper pressed to her head.

"Hey Rosalie" she greeted me.

"Bella, what did you do?" I asked her, trying to look at her cut.

"Well I thought I saw someone I knew and I dropped the glass I was holding and I tried to catch it but I knocked over the whole shelf" she admitted sheepishly. I shook my head at her as I removed the toilet paper from her hand. The sight underneath was horrible.

She had one huge gash across her cheek and a couple small ones round her forehead. She had a huge bruise along her chin and there was a _lot_ of blood.

"Bella!" I screeched. I had never seen so much blood before.

"Don't worry Rosalie, I always bleed this much" she said calmly. I ran over to the toilet to get some more tissue paper.

"Here" I said, dabbing her wounds. I didn't know what else to do; maybe I should ask Tyler if we could leave early today. I heard footsteps outside the door and I guessed it was Alice.

"Alice!" I cried. She came flying and knocked me out of the way.

"Bella? Are you okay now?" she asked calmly. I was amazed. Alice was never calm.

"Yeah, at least I can see now" she replied. She hopped of the counter with the tissue still pressed onto her face. She removed it and looked in the mirror, assessing the damage. She winced as she touched the bruise on her chin and smiled back at us. "It's not that bad, I'd better gat back to work" she said.

"Whoa there Bella, your not going back to work in that glass-filled bar!" Alice shrieked.

"But…I have to" Bella said, taken aback by Alice's outburst.

"Come on Bella, we'll take you back to the room" I said, I really couldn't let her walk around here with tissue paper plastered to her face. She sighed and shrugged, realising she was outnumbered.

We pulled her outside and I spotted Tyler.

"Over here" I told them. We dragged Bella over and showed her to Tyler. His eyes widened and he looked over towards the glasses.

"Are you okay Bella?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm fine" Bella said, emphasizing the word 'fine'.

"You should go back to your room Bella" Tyler told her. She nodded sadly and turned to me.

"I'll go on my own, you guys will need to keep working if I'm going" she said. I nodded and let go of her hand before hugging her tightly. Alice did the same and added:

"We'll be back before you know it" with that Bella walked quietly out of the restaurant, holding her head. I hoped she got better soon.

**Bella's POV**

My head was thumping and I was glad to be out of that bar. Even so I didn't like them treating me like I was a little kid. I_ was _capable of taking care of myself. I trudged along the deck and around to the elevator. I pressed the button to my floor and leaned back, closing my eyes. I needed to get some ice on my chin.

Suddenly the elevator stopped. It was too early to be my stop so I supposed someone else was joining me. I heard a gasp as the doors slid open and bit back a sigh. I bet I looked awful.

I felt someone walk over to me and stand next to me. I opened my eyes and saw the guy from the bar last night.

"Hello" I said, trying to smile. _Ow!_ okay don't smile. I heard a relieved sigh.

"Are you okay?" he asked, his brow furrowed with…. Something, worry maybe?

"I'm fine" I said. He chuckled quietly and asked me to move the tissue so he could see. I wasn't going to let a stranger see them, but unfortunately he had the same puppy dog eyes that Alice had. "Fine" I pouted pulling the tissue away from my face. He gasped loudly again and I saw his hands clench into fists.

"What happened?" he asked. There was something in his voice, something I couldn't quite place.

"I dropped a glass and I tried to catch it but I knocked over the rest of the shelf of glasses" I recited again. He took a deep breath and looked at his watch. His brow furrowed again and I had no idea why. "Is something wrong?" I asked as he looked at his watch again.

"No…." he said after a while, "Nothings wrong" he said. Unfortunately for me, it was my stop this time as the doors glided open. I made a move to leave but the guy stepped in front of me.

"Hey" I complained

"Let me come and clean you up, you look… horrible" he winced. I sighed inwardly. Of course he thought I was ugly.

"Sure" I said. He smiled widely and I led him to my room. I opened the door and went straight over to the bed and collapsed on it.

"Wait a minute, ill just go and get some towels" he said disappearing into the bathroom.

**Edward's POV **

I needed to be sneaky about this. I had said I was only going out to the deck to get some fresh air for ten minutes. I sent jasper a text message and told him that I might be a bit longer. I searched for some towels and wet them a little.

When I saw her in that lift, I couldn't believe how lucky I was. How much of a coincidence that not only someone would be in the lift, but that someone would be that beautiful girl. But I got really worried when I saw that tissue stuck to her face.

It took everything I had not to touch her in that lift, but now I could, even if it was only for a couple of seconds. I quickly located the first aid kit, I knew where that was and I made my way over to her.

She was lying down on her bed, her hair spread out around her head and the tissue still plastered to her face.

"I'm going to take the tissue off now" I told her, as not to scare her with my touch. I reached down and carefully peeled it away. The gash on her check was definitely the worst one.

I gently prodded it with the damp towel and put some antiseptic cream on it. She winced when I did and I had to clench my hands to stop from touching her again. I quickly put a plaster over it and moved to her other cuts. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do about her bruise and I felt terrible because of it.

"There you go" I said quietly, "I'm sorry if I hurt you"

"No, I'm fine… Thank you" she whispered.

I leaned back and breathed in her scent. It was amazing.

"No problem" I replied. Suddenly she jumped off of the bed and walked into the bathroom.

"Wow this looks like it was done by a real doctor" she smiled. I, of course, smiled back at her.

"I used to help my uncle" I explained, "He's a doctor".

"No wonder" she said, poking the plasters. I couldn't help but feel incredibly glad that I had helped out at the hospital a couple of summers ago. He'd be proud. "Thanks again, I would've probably just caused more injury doing it myself"

I chuckled. Suddenly I felt a vibration in my pocket. It was jasper.

_Where are you? Emmett's tried to leave tw__ice in the last 5 minutes!_

I texted him back and said I'd be there soon.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go" I told her. I was going to punch Emmett when I got back.

"Oh" she said, her face falling. I was just about to leave when she interrupted me. "Tell me your name?" she asked.

"Next time" I said smiling at her.

**A/N: Hope you liked it please review!**


	11. Agloop?

**Disclaimer: I don't own twilight... Don't sue me please. Thanks.**

So I was left alone in my room as the handsome stranger ran down the halls. I was about to call for him, but my phone started buzzing in my pocket.

_Bella,_

_You ok?_

_Al_

I sent her one back quickly.

_Al,_

_Yeah, im good. _

_This guy I met in the bar yesterday helped me_

_Bella_

I walked over to my bed. I was tired and my chin hurt a lot. I lay down and was just about to go to sleep when I felt the annoying buzz in my pocket again.

_What Guy from the bar?_

I mentally cursed myself for putting that in my message. I was sending her one more and then I'd turn my phone off.

_This guy who came to the bar yesterday_

_at 9:45 and had a cream soda, _

_don't ask I don't know his name._

_Bella_

With that I turned it off and fell asleep quickly.

**Alice's POV **

I was really worried about Bella. I tried not to show it in the bathroom, but those cuts looked pretty serious. What didn't help at all was the fact that rose was constantly bugging me to text her.

I told her that she was probably sleeping, and I didn't want to wake her up, sometimes rose was really annoying.

So when Jasper walked in the door, it improved my mood greatly. He didn't bother going to sit down this time. Instead he came straight over to me and took my hand.

"Do you want to sit with me?" he asked. I bit my lip. I was supposed to be working- especially because Bella had gone back to her room.

"I…Uh, I don't think I can, I have to work" I said, smiling pathetically and showing him my dishtowel.

"Don't worry" he said smiling. He took my hand and led me to the bar. "Hey Tyler?" he called.

"Yeah?" Tyler said

"Would it be possible for me to borrow this little lady here for a couple of minutes?" he asked nicely.

"Uh… yeah sure" he said. I smiled gratefully at him and followed jasper to go sit at a table.

"So Alice, you owe me a story" he said, smiling. Of course, I forgot all about it.

"Well the first day when we were here I went to go and pick up our uniform and they handed me the name tags and I wanted to see if they decided to use my suggestion for diamond studded ones" I smiled, remembering that it never did work out. "So I opened the wrapper all exited and I pull it out only to find it doesn't belong to me. It belonged to a person called Agloop" I said laughing.

He laughed along as well. It was the most beautiful laugh I had ever heard. I smiled dreamily for a while before I heard jasper ask something.

"So then what?" he asked, still laughing.

"Well I demanded to know what their problem was" I said, "And where in the world was 'Agloop' a common name" jasper was laughing so much he was nearly on the floor and he had tears in his eyes.

"Well Alice, I'm certainly glad that you didn't use that name tag" he said through his laughter. I took a deep breath and leant back in the chair closing my eyes. Right now I probably had a big goofy grin plastered to my face.

"Oh" I gasped. I was on a break; it was the perfect time to text Bella. "I hope you don't mind" I said, showing him my phone, "My friend, another waitress, had an accident. I wanted to check on her?" I asked.

"Yes, of course" He smiled at me. I hastily texted Bella to see if she was okay. She replied soon after. She said that there was a guy who had helped her, the guy who was in here yesterday. I gasped and then smiled widely. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing" I sighed. He rethought his question.

"Okay then, what's right?" he asked. I laughed at his question.

"Well, my friend was caught up in a collapsing shelf, so we sent her back to the room" I stopped to take a breath and he nodded, "She's just texted me saying that the guy that came down here yesterday to order a cream soda at 9:45 has helped her and…" I trailed off.

"And…?" Jasper asked.

"And this is Brilliant!" I exclaimed excitedly. I was already planning ways to get them together in my head when I noticed Jasper's expression. He was calculating something.

"Did she know his name?" He asked me.

"No" I answered. He shook his head and mumbled something along the lines of 'smart boy'.

"Do you have any idea what he looked like?" he asked me. I smiled. I had caught a glimpse of him just as he was leaving.

"Well, I've only seen the backside of him so I can't tell you very much, But I do remember he had really messy bronze hair and…" I trailed off. Jasper had left the table already.

"Bye Alice" he called over his shoulder. I sighed, maybe one day I'd find a guy as good as the one Bella had found. I was just about to go back to cleaning the tables when I felt a hand on my shoulder. "And thanks" he whispered in my ear, before running away again. I sighed.

I'd already found him.

**Jasper's POV **

I ran back to the room feeling light-headed. I was the only one who had gotten away with it. No one would know that I had spent time with Alice today and I had proof that Edward wasn't as good as I was. I rounded the corridor and pulled the door open.

"Ah-ha" I yelled pointing randomly into the room. I looked around. It was empty. I walked over to the bed and found a note. It was in Edward's handwriting:

_Dear Jasper,_

_Sorry, __**it**__ escaped._

_Gone to the pool_

_See you later_

_Edward _

I sighed. Well I'd better go look for _it_. I threw my jacket back on and stomped out of the room.

…………………………………………

It was now 7:30pm. I had found Emmett hanging out in the top bar instead of the restaurant, so I couldn't punish him. Somehow we had both ended up drunk and right on time little eddy had come to drag us back to the apartment.

"Come on!" he plead while we laughed at him from our bar stools, "If you guys don't come now, I'll get my dad up here, I swear I will". We gave in easily after that. No one wanted to face Mr. Cullen when he was angry. We staggered back down to the room, with eddy leading the way. He opened the door and we both collapsed on the bed.

"I can't keep doing this, guys" he said, annoyed.

"Don't worry bout a thing eddy" Emmett laughed. He was much more drunk that I was. In the time I was up there, around 2 hours, I had had 2 and a half beers. So if Emmett had been up there for 4 hours, and he drinks a lot faster than me, than I'd have a guess at 6 maybe 7 beers.

"Look Edward, I'm sorry" I said sincerely. I had a slight headache and my vision was slightly blurry, but that was probably because I was tired as well. He nodded at my apology and went back to glaring at Emmett.

After a while, Emmett had fallen asleep on Edward's bed and we were huddled in the corner of the room, trying to keep warm. It had gotten really cold recently, but seeing as it was close to Christmas I wasn't surprised.

"Jasper" Edward sighed. I looked down, my foot was squishing his. I moved it over to the side a bit and he sighed gratefully. It continued like this for a while I guess, until I was sober again.

"Edward" I said. He looked down reflexively and looked back up confused, "I know what you did". It was silent for a while and then we both fell into a laughing fit.

"What's…? What's with the movie tagline?" he asked through his laughter.

"It's not a joke Edward" I said, suddenly serious.

"Look Jazz, I didn't kill anyone if that's what you're thinking" he said, still laughing.

"That's good, but it's not what I was talking about" I said, "I know what you did with the waitress". He went silent all of a sudden and his eyes narrowed.

"Where's the proof" he growled.

"I don't need proof, I. Just. Know"

"No one's going to believe you Jasper"

"All I have to do is convince Emmett and then you won't be seeing that restaurant for a whole week"

"Convince Emmett to do what?" came a sleepy voice from near my bed.

"Emmett go back to sleep" Edward hissed.

"No Em, come here" I insisted. I had to hold in my laughter when He trudged over to us and nearly sat on Edward. He must still be drunk.

"What?" he asked.

"Well" I said, a grin creeping onto my face, "Eddy boy here's got something to tell you"

"No Jasper" he said darkly.

"What?" Emmett asked again.

"Eddy's broken the rules" I smiled. I saw Emmett's silhouette smile and turn on Edward.

"You. Don't. Have. Proof!" he shouted quietly.

"Jasper?" Emmett asked

"We don't need proof, I _know_ he did" I whispered. Emmett turned to look at Edward again and then he stepped back.

"I'm sorry Jazz. As much as I want to do this, you don't have any proof" he snarled the last bit.

"Fine! I'll tell you" I exclaimed loudly. I took a deep breath and made sure my face was completely blank. "I went to the restaurant and asked Tyler where the waitresses where cause I couldn't see either of them. He said that one of them had a painful encounter with a couple of glasses and had to go home and then he said something about a guy who ordered cream soda helping her. There is only _one_ person in the whole world that'd go to a bar at night and order a cream soda- Edward" I finished. Emmett looked surprised that Edward had actually broken the rules, Edward however, looked puzzled.

"How d'you know that I ordered cream soda?" he asked. I wasn't prepared for that.

"I…"

"How did _Tyler_ know _I_ ordered cream soda?" he asked.

"I…"

"How did Tyler know that I had helped her?" he asked.

"Ah-ha! So you admit it!" Emmett shouted triumphantly. Edward shushed him.

"Unless…" He trailed off, his silhouetted eyes widening. "Unless it wasn't Tyler, it couldn't be he didn't know any of this stuff, it had to be the one person who was there during all of those events…. Well nearly all of them" he muttered. Suddenly he gasped. I clenched my eyes closed, waiting for it.

"It wasn't Tyler. It was Alice" he whispered. I shook my head weakly, but Edward already knew the truth.

"Well, seeing as both of you broke the rules I have no choice but to ban you from the restaurant for two weeks" Emmett said

"Two weeks?!" Edward and I shouted together.

"Well, it was a double rule breaking, so double consequences" he explained.

"That's no fair" I snipped.

"Too bad" Emmett grinned.

"No wait!" Edward said.

"What is it this time eddy, can't you see I'm trying to ruin your next two weeks?" Emmett exclaimed.

"This obviously isn't working…. We need something to loose or to win" he said.

"Like a competition?" I asked.

"Exactly" Edward smiled.

"We need something to win… and something that happens to the losers" Edward said, already thinking.

"So if we don't follow the rules just for one time we loose?" Emmett asked. Edward and I nodded in agreement.

"So something for the winner?" I asked.

"The winner gets…"Edward started

"To kiss their girl!" Emmett called out

"Bragging rights" I said

"To figure out the other's punishment" Edward said darkly with a smile on his face.

"And the losers?" Emmett asked.

"It's up to the winner I guess" I said.

"They have to pay up" Edward said. There was something up with him lately, he seemed so… dark.

"How much?"

"Ten-thousand dollars" he said.

"You're on!" Emmett yelled enthusiastically.

"You bet" I said.

**A/N: Please review!!! thanks**


	12. What If

**A/N: Hey guys, Thanks for reviewing!!! it means so much to me that you do and you all make my day! THANK YOU SO MUCH! This was originally one chapter but i decided to split it into two cause it was really long... so the next chapter will be up sometime tomorrow, IF you review. okay hope you enjoy it!!**

**Disclaimer: Guys...I don't own twilight. please dont sue me, Thanks.**

It had been a month and a half since we started working on this ship. I had to say, it wasn't _incredibly_ exiting or anything, but it was quite fascinating. I loved watching them. Rich people were so…Interesting. They'd come in, drink a beer, meet a friend, have some food and then they'd be off again.

Before I knew it the days had turned to weeks and the weeks into months. But I always hoped that there'd be someone there who I'd recognise. Bronze hair, Green eyes, yep that's the guy. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen_ him_ at all. That's what I called him now- _him_. It was either that or cream soda man.

Alice and Rosalie seemed down as well. There was something odd about them. The way the looked over to the door every time it opened, how they always looked disappointed, it was like they were missing their own cream soda man.

It was Alice, who finally broke me out of my, lets say _slightly_ boring, routine.

"Please Bella!" she whimpered. We were walking down the hall on the way back from work. Tyler had let us out early today because he didn't expect that it'd be too busy.

"Hmm?" I Asked. I had been paying absolutely no attention to her whatsoever. My mind was taken up with thoughts about _him _again.

"The Ball Bella" she sighed, like she'd explained it a thousand times before.

"What Ball?" I asked looking down, I didn't see any ball.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed. I could see she was starting to get annoyed. "The Christmas Ball? You know like a dance? At Christmas?" she said slowly. My brain worked through the words painstakingly slowly, but it finally clicked.

"Alice! You want me to dance?! In front of people?!" I shouted.

"Shh" she said, "That's kind of the whole point!" she sighed back, angrily.

"But Alice! I can't dance" I cried.

"Sure you can" she said happily, pulling me into the room. I collapsed on the bed and sighed.

"Alice, I can barely walk around behind the bar without knocking everything over and killing everyone in sight"

"Bella. You are going. That's final" she said darkly.

"But Alice! I don't even know when it is… and I don't have anything to wear and…and…" I trailed off, trying to find another excuse. Alice threw me a glare and sat down on the sofa.

"Bella" she said calmly, "It's all taken care of. I've got a dress for you, Rosalie's gone to get her make-up stuff and we'll have you ready by seven thirty, the latest"

"Wait… its _today_!" I shrieked. If Alice thought I was reluctant before, there was no way she was even going to get me off the bed by now.

"Of course it's today Bella! It's the 15th how late do you expect them to do it?" she asked like I was the stupidest person alive. Right on cue Rosalie popped her head through the door.

"Hey guys" she said smiling. She was up to something- I could see it in her eyes. She looked over to Alice and nodded, But Alice smiled back and shook her head subtly. "So Bella I guess Alice has already told you about the ball huh?" she gesturing to my hands that were now gripping the duvet for dear life.

"Yep" I nodded, glaring at them. They both smiled again as Rosalie made her way over to me.

"Well what did you say?" she asked innocently. Like she didn't already know!

"I said no" I stated simply.

"So you said that you didn't want to not go?" she asked. What was she trying to do here?

"Nope, I said that I didn't want to go" I said, smiling at their feeble attempt to confuse me.

"So what you're saying is that you are more or less certain that you definitely do not want to maybe consider thinking about the possibility that you don't want to go?" she asked me again. It took me a bit longer this time, but I still managed to get there in the end.

"No, I don't want to go!" I said again. Rose looked like she was about to explode from the amount of thinking she was doing now.

"So you are not definitely rejecting the idea that you are not going to that Ball, furthermore you are incredibly uncertain that you may or may not be considering the possibility that you may surely not be going to the Ball" she finished smugly. I stood there gaping at her. There was no way I was going to be able to untangle _that_! I decided to guess.

"Ummm… yes?" I said.

"Perfect" rose celebrated, "Now sit down on that chair so that we can get you ready". There was no point in arguing with them this time. Two against one and my, unknowing, agreement. I sighed and made my way over to the chair. This was going to be a long night.

**Edward's POV **

I fell down on my bed and huffed. I really _didn't_ want to go to this stupid Ball, but my parents were making me. I was already 21 and my parents were still bossing me around.

How sad was that?

I had about half an hour until the stupid thing started and I was all set to spend it hiding out in here, safe from Emmett and jasper_. They_ got to decide if they _wanted _to go. Which they did. And what were they going to do while they were there? Annoy the crap out of me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose with my fingers. This was the last one, the last one ever, and then I'd be free to go and do whatever I wanted, as far away as I wanted. I smiled slightly at the thought of getting away from here. When I was, I'd be free to do whatever I wanted, I'd finally be able to….

My thoughts were cut off due to the loud banging noise that was coming from my door.

"Hey Eddie let us in!" Emmett shouted from the other side.

"Not by the hairs on your chinny-chin-chin" I shouted back. If they were going to annoy me tonight, I was going to have my fun as well.

"Then we'll huff, and we'll puff, and we'll get your dad to knock the door down!" he threatened.

"Yeah right you will, you don't even know what room their staying in" I scoffed.

"Uhh… we could find out?" he suggested. I was getting bored of this. I got up and opened the door

"Save yourself the trouble and just come in" I sighed. They ran over to bed bad and sprawled all over it so I couldn't sit down. I sighed again and sat down on the floor in the corner.

"What's up Eddie? Missing the restaurant?" he asked with a smile. He knew I was, and I knew he was as well, so why was he smiling?

"No…" I lied, "But I know who is" I said glancing at him and jasper. They both formed sheepish smiles and Emmett laughed nervously. "Have you been cheating?!" I asked. It had been hard, avoiding her, but I had managed to do it. At least I knew it was all worth it now. "Does this mean I win?! Yes! Hand over the money guys" I said, jumping up excitedly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa calm down there little man, we haven't lost" he said nervously.

"Yet" Jasper added. Come to think of it, he looked kinda nervous too.

"What? Why are you guys so nervous?" I asked. They had both started playing with their buttons and their ties.

"Well, you see, funny thing is-" Emmett started.

"They're going to be there. Tonight" Jasper said, looking down. They were going to be there. The waitresses? Oh crap.

"B-B-But they can't go" I stammered, "I-Its guests only!"

"I know but they're going to be there" Emmett confirmed. I slid back down to the floor again. How was I supposed to _not_ talk to her if she was going?

"Wait, how do _you_ know?" I asked, looking up at Emmett. He smiled sheepishly again and looked down.

"I _might_ have gone down to the restaurant to get a beer, and I _might_ have accidentally asked Tyler where the girls were and he _mig_ht have told me that they were getting ready for the Ball" He admitted. I sat there awestruck. This was not happening.

"He means he went down to the restaurant to find his waitress and when she wasn't there, demanded Tyler to tell him where they were and he told him everything" Jasper corrected. I nodded weakly. Tonight was going to be very,_ very_ difficult.

**Bella's POV **

After about 3 hours of obsessive hair-styling and make-up-ing, I was_ finally_ ready. Alice and rose insisted that they spent most of their time on me, and that only left them with an hour to get ready but they said it was all worth it. When they had finished I got up and was dragged by Alice to see myself in the mirror.

I was amazed. There was no other word for it. Simply amazed.

They had put me in a long, navy blue Ball gown. It had a big, poofy skirt that floated around me, it was a bit tight around the upper part of my body, and it also made me look like I had curves as well. The person in the mirror had long brown hair that came up to her shoulder. It was curled and bouncy and she had the most stunning look upon her face when she smiled.

"Alice. Rosalie" I breathed. This couldn't be me, that smiling beauty in there wasn't me. "I-I-I" I didn't know what to say. This was astounding. I ran over to them and hugged them as tightly as I could.

"Don't worry Bella, we know you love it. The look on your face says it all" Rose smiled at me.

"Now don't do anything to ruin your make-up. Rose and I'll be in our rooms getting ready if you need anything. We'll be back in an hour" Alice announced. And with that they were gone and I was left alone. An hour until the Ball. Suddenly I had butterflies.

What if _He_ was there?!

I couldn't do this. I started hyperventilating and I had to try to find a way to calm myself down. I started pacing, but after a while I got tired and I had to sit down again. What if he didn't go? Would I be happy or sad? Would I try to go look for him if he didn't turn up? Why would he even go? All these questions rebounded in my head, making it nearly impossible for me to think about anything else.

So I just sat there on my bed, uselessly, dreading what was about to come.

*

At exactly one hour since they had left there was a knock at my door. I groaned and got up. It was time _already_? I reached over to grab my purse and my wrap. I opened the door and was greeted by an exited Alice and Rosalie. I groaned again internally. It was going to be a long night.

They pulled me along, giggling, to the elevator.

"Come on Bella, be happy, your going to a Ball!" she exclaimed happily. I sighed and they both giggled at me. Great. I had a couple of hyper friends and we were going to a Ball. Could things get any worse?

"Bella, you know" Rosalie said giggling slightly, "There might be guys there"

"Rich ones, you know- that like cream soda?" Alice giggled innocently.

Me and my big mouth. Things could definitely get worse.

"I-I don't know what your talking about" I lied. Of course I knew. She was talking about him_._

"Oh you know, that guy who came to the restaurant, so very long ago, and as I recall helped you with your little problem" she said sneakily gesturing towards my cheek, which unfortunately, had not healed fully yet.

"Yeah…So? What if he is there? Doesn't make a difference to me" I lied again.

"Yeah, suuure it doesn't" Rosalie scoffed. I crossed my arms and pouted as I got in the lift. We had barely started the evening and they were ganging up on me.

"Awwww come on Bella, we didn't mean for you to get upset or anything" Alice apologized. I didn't say anything as I scowled at the floor. When we were finally let out of the lift and I looked up I was amazed yet again. They had completely transformed the corridors we had travelled down earlier.

There were boughs of holly that went on for as far as the eye could see, shimmering bells hung to every ceiling lamp and tinsel, and miles and miles of tinsel everywhere. It looked like Christmas had exploded right where we were standing.

"Wow" I managed to get out. But by the looks of joy on Alice and Rosalie's faces, this was the least to expect.

"Come on Bella, hurry up" Alice said, tugging in my arm like a little 4-year old. I was quickly dragged down the corridors and out into the entrance lobby. We were very close to the Ballroom now, only 2 more corridors to go. Rosalie and Alice ran down them while I trudged behind, trying not to break my ankles in the death-trap shoes they had made me wear. By the time I got there, there was a ginormus line of people, all wearing fancy ball gowns and tux's. I couldn't see Alice or Rose anywhere.

"Alice?! Rose?!" I called. That's when I saw them. They were at the front pf the line, talking to the guard. I wondered why they'd need to have guard at a ball. "Alice, Rose" I called again. This time they looked up and smiled at me.

"Bella, come on" Alice said excitedly. I was just about to enter when the guard put his arm out.

"Umm, Alice!" I yelled.

"She's with us" she looked at the guard, flashing him a fake smile. He grudgingly lowered his arm and allowed me to pass.

"Why wouldn't he let me in?" I asked her.

"It doesn't matter right now" she snapped. She pulled me along to the back of the room.

"Alice where are we-" I trailed off. The Ballroom we went to that first day was actually the entrance hall _to_ the ballroom. It was completely massive. The whole room must've taken up one whole side if the boat! I stood there with my mouth hanging open and Alice tugged on my hand again, laughing.

"Come on Bella, you haven't even seen the best bit yet!" she screamed. Everyone turned to look at us as she dragged me down the staircase. She ran across the dance floor to the buffet table. "A chocolate fountain!" she squealed. I grinned at her and she laughed. It wasn't like I'd never seen one before and she'd probably seen her share too.

"Where's Rosalie?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and continued laughing. I manoeuvred myself through the crowd to try and find Rosalie, but there was no sign of her at all. "Alice, I can't find her!" I said panicking.

"Bella, its okay Rose can take care of herself" she sighed calmly. Suddenly she went ridged and I looked around to see what was causing it. It was Elizabeth Cullen. She was walking up to the stage. She walked to the center and tapped the microphone.

"Hello everybody" she smiled. It was like preschool, everyone joined in a chorus of 'Hello Mrs. Cullen'. I giggled quietly. "We'd like to thank you for coming on the maiden voyage of our biggest ever ship the Rica. It has been our project for over three years and we are finally glad to have it over with" she said. This was accompanied by various laughs. "So we hope you have a restful stay, merry Christmas and a happy new year!" she shouted into the microphone. The whole room erupted into clapping and laughter. As she slowly stepped down from the stage, things began to add up in my head.

This was a _guest's party_. We were only _employees_.

"Ummm Alice?" I said quietly. We would get in huge trouble if they caught us here.

"Yep?" she said happily.

"We're not supposed to be here" I told her.


	13. A Hundred Times Worse

**Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine... Don't sue me please! thank you.**

She looked at me, clearly shocked, and started laughing. A few people turned around to see who was being so loud. "Alice, we're gonna be in so much trouble if we don't get out of here and find rose" I hissed. This only made her laugh harder. "Alice-"

"Bella, its okay!" she giggled, "You really haven't figured it out yet?" I had no idea what she was talking about.

"Figured out what?" I asked. Just then rose came up behind Alice with a huge dopey smile on her face. When she heard my question her smile faded, before she started laughing as well. "What?!" I asked.

"Bella, we are guests" she giggled.

"No we're not, we _work_ here" I said.

"I know we do, but we _chose_ to work" Rosalie told me.

"But-but-" I stuttered. Why would they choose to work when they could just be hanging out around the boat? "Why?" I asked them.

"We wanted to try it out" Alice said, "We've never had a job and our parents told us they'd only let us get one if it was on one of these ships"

"Cause they were 'worried about safety'" Rosalie recited. I was happy for them. Of course they were rich and powerful, why hadn't I seen it before? All those bags, when Rosalie got angry at the doorman for not knowing her name, everything. But I wasn't.

"Sorry guys, I gotta go, I'm not supposed to be here" I said, sadly. I couldn't believe I'd missed it.

"No Bella, you're _our_ guest, so you're welcome at the party" Alice told me. I shook my head and looked down. I _really_ didn't want to dance now.

"I'm sorry guys, I-I might come back later, but not now" I whispered. Rose and Alice looked so sad when I left I nearly went back to them and told them to forget it, but I couldn't stay here knowing that I was the only one that didn't fit in.

I was running up the stairs now, trying to get out as quickly as I could. I reached near the top and I looked down to see Alice and rose for the last time tonight. I definitely wasn't coming back. As I turned back I suddenly saw a flash of green. My heart stopped. It wasn't… it couldn't be, could it? I turned around again and saw a flash of Bronze. _Green _eyes,_ bronze_ hair, it was _him_. As if by some strange coincidence, he turned around in that exact same moment. All of a sudden, my heart started beating in overdrive, and my hands got sweaty. His eyes twinkled at me and I couldn't help but smile a bit. He sent me a small wave and I looked behind me, he was probably waving at someone else.

I was surprised, however, to find that there was no one at all behind me, and no one near me either. I looked back at him and he looked like he was trying to hide a smile. I waved back shyly and he gestured for me to go over there, I shook my head and he frowned. I closed my eyes and shook my head again. Why? Tonight of all nights and I just _had_ to find out that Alice and Rosalie were extremely rich and important. And then I made it worse by leaving cause I'm just _that_ stupid. I opened my eyes and looked back. He wasn't there anymore, figures. He was probably here with his hot girlfriend; he was probably just feeling sorry for me when he waved.

I was about to turn around and climb the rest of the stairs, when I felt someone grab my hand. I gasped and whirled around. There _he_ was. Standing there, still holding my hand. He looked like he really wanted to say something, but he couldn't. I cleared my throat.

"Hi" I whispered timidly. He smiled triumphantly and chuckled.

"Will you dance with me?" he asked. His voice was so perfect and smooth, he wasn't nervous at all.

"I-I-I can't" I said, pulling my hand away from him. He grabbed it back again and looked into my eyes.

"Please" he whispered. His eyes lit up as I nodded my head slowly- there was no way I couldn't say no to him again. He pulled me down the stairs slowly and down to the dance floor. Luckily there was a new song that was just starting, so we didn't venture to near the middle which was good, that way we wouldn't accidentally bump into Alice or Rosalie. The song started and we stood with an awkward space between us. He hesitantly put his hands on my waist and I slowly lifted my arms to place them on his shoulders.

_Saw you from a distance_

_Saw you from the stage_

_Something about the look in your eyes_

_Something about your beautiful face _

He looked down at me and smiled. Gosh he was stunning. I blushed and looked down, pretending to watch my feet. He put his finger under my chin and pulled my head up.

"Hey, don't look down" he whispered happily. I smiled and moved a bit closer to him. You could now only fit an Alice in between us.

_In a sea of people_

_There is only you_

_I never knew what the song was about_

_But suddenly now I do _

He Chuckled and started moving my hips to the beat. I laughed and he pulled me closer yet again. The space between us: roughly my backpack.

_Trying to reach out to you, touch my hand_

_Reach out as far as you can_

_Only me, only you, and the band_

_Trying to reach out to you, touch my hand _

I looked back up to him and his eyes were smouldering. I gasped and bit my lip- I couldn't get over how handsome he was. He finally pulled me up against him and I laid my head on his chest, joining my hands behind his neck while he kept a firm grasp on my waist. I was confused. I was so close to him, but I didn't feel awkward, or scared. I felt, like this was right, and nothing else mattered.

_Can't let the music stop_

_Can't let this feeling end_

_Cause if I do it'll all be over, _

_I'll never see you again_

_Can't let music stop_

_Until I touch your hand_

_Cause if I do it'll all be over_

_Ill never get the chance again, Ill never get the chance again _

The words echoed around inside of my head. I was never going to see him again, there was no point. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ I chanted in my head. Here I was, thinking that this guy actually _liked_ me and I was stupid enough to believe it. I was never going to get the chance to know him or to talk to him or anything. Our paths didn't cross, it wasn't meant to be. I reluctantly stepped back form him and he looked at me, slightly shocked.

"I'm sorry" I choked out, "I can't do this" with that I ran as fast as I could away from the dance floor, away from everything I had known, away from _him_. I could feel the tears coming and I didn't want anyone to see my cry. I was just about to pull the door open when something caught me around the wrist.

"Where are you going?" he asked. I shook my head, afraid my voice would break. "Please tell me" he asked again. I wanted to tell him, I really did, but he didn't need to know, so I shook my head again. I heard him sigh. "At least tell me your name?" he asked. His question took me by surprise, why would he want to know my name?

"Bella" I whispered. I remembered I didn't even know his name yet, he promised to tell me last time. "And yours?" I asked quietly, fighting back my tears.

"Edward" he whispered. He was till holding my wrist so I brushed his hand off, looking down.

"Goodbye Edward" I whimpered. I threw open the door and rushed out of it. The cold sea air smacked my face and I ran as fast as I could down to the restaurant- my safe place. I staggered around in there, unable to see through my tears. I was glad Tyler had decided to give us three keys so we could get in, in the morning. I stumbled over to a table, crumpled on the seat and sobbed. I was so _stupid_ and I had just made everything a hundred times worse by going to that Ball.

I sat uncomfortably on the seat for about ten minutes before I decided to get up. There was no way I was going to solve my problems that easily, not even in my safe place. I stood up again, and stumbled through the door. I was still partially blind from my tears as I walked down the outside of the ship. I wondered down to the bow. The ballroom was located at the stern of the boat, and I wanted to be as far away as possible.

I walked around the small area, there wasn't much there. Actually, it reminded me of that scene from titanic, the one where the girl stands in front of the guy, yep that one. I sighed. Unfortunately, unlike her, I didn't have a guy to share it with. I waltzed over to the railing and leaned against it. It felt so good to have the salty wind running through my hair.

A sudden lurch pulled me out of my trance. I looked around. There was nothing that could have made the ship jerk that much. As I moved back from the railing I got incredibly scared. How stupid was I that I came out here alone?! I could die and no one would know. It seemed like everything was going wrong tonight. A couple of minutes passed and there had been no more jerking. _How strange_ I thought.

I had started to walk back to my room when I felt it again. There was a sudden lurch, and then nothing. There was definitely something weird going on here. I took of my shoes and sprinted back down the boat. I thought I might be slightly over-reacting, but who doesn't when they're on a ship that occasionally jumps about in the middle of the ocean while everybody else is at a Ball. It was like a twisted version of Cinderella.

I had made it down to the main deck, when the boat suddenly stopped_. Oh no_ I thought, my heart started beating unhealthily fast again. _Please no, please_ I prayed in my head. I didn't dare move, scared that the ship would sink with any movement. It was nearly silent. The ship's engine had turned off and all you could hear was a whisper of the Ball and the waves, crashing against the boat. I stayed tensed for a while. There wasn't anymore rocking, or lurching, but I didn't think this was over. Suddenly the boat started moving again. But not normally, it was moving like it was being dragged over broken glass.

_Crap Bella, your going to die, on a boat, In the middle of nowhere, in a ball gown__!_ I was going to die. Unexpectedly, the boat started tipping. _Oh no, Oh please no_ I chanted. The boat continued to tip and my heart fell. There was no hope, no hope at all. I started crying again. This was it, the end, bye-bye. I hadn't even said goodbye to Alice, or Rosalie, or my… _Charlie_- I broke down and collapsed against the rails. I had left my father and now he was going to have to deal with my death _as well_ as my mother's death. _Bella you are so stupid!_ I told myself. It was my fault I had ever taken this stupid job and if I hadn't I would still be at home, with Charlie, and he wouldn't have to go through with this kind of stuff again!

The ship creaked loudly and began falling rapidly. I was trying with all my might not to scream, why? I didn't know what to scream.

You know they say that you see your whole life flash before your eyes just before you die? Well that was what happened to me. There were memories of Renée, ones I didn't even know I had, ones of Charlie and I playing together, my grandparents, Alice, Rosalie, My friends, my family, and then just one more. One outstanding memory that stood out from the rest. A man with the most dazzling green eyes and the most tousled bronze hair.

"Edward!" I screamed, as the ship finally fell horizontally. The last thing I remembered, before I hit the freezing cold water, was a pair of strong, warm arms wrap around me. Then everything went black.

**A/N:** **Was that a good cliffy or am i just rubbish? well anyway, thank you guys SO much for all of the reviews, they are brilliant and you guys are all so sweet!! There will probably be a couple more chapters up soon and then i'll have come to the end of my ready made chapters phase and then you'll have to wait a while for the new chapters... sorry guys. **

**Also, if you were wondering, the song that edward and bella danced to is called "Touch My Hands" By David Archuleta. He is the most amazing singer in the WORLD! so i really suggest you listen to it cause your missing out on something here.**

**So yeah, Thank you GUYS!!!! please review!**


	14. Memory Lane

**Disclaimer: I dont own twilight...Don't sue me please. thanks.**

I felt like I was being pulled in every direction. My arms were somewhere above me, and my legs were tangled up with something. My eyes stung and I didn't want to open them, so I couldn't exactly see where I was. I tried to feel around. I was lying on something… soft. That was good, heaven was supposed to be soft. But it was cold and warm at the same time- my back was cool while my front was freezing cold. This was quite confusing- wasn't heaven supposed to be nice, maybe I was in hell after all. I shivered at the thought and gasped. I could breathe again! I rolled over and coughed, salt water pouring out.

After my lungs were empty again, I rolled back over onto my back. It was pleasant now, and I had gotten used to the warmth against my back. My eyes were starting to stop stinging, so I opened them. Immediately, I was blinded by some sort of light. I rolled over again and pressed my face into the ground. It wasn't soft anymore, it was rough and gritty and it stuck to my face. I coughed again and lifted my face. I opened my eyes and I was looking at…sand. I was on a beach? Well there were _probably_ some beaches in heaven I guess.

I moved my arms towards me and wiped them on my clothes to get rid of the sand. I brushed my hair out of my face and sat on my bum. I was stunned by what I saw. It was the ocean- deep, sparkling and clear. It went on for as long as the eye could see, and the beach stretched out miles along the edge of a rainforest. This wasn't heaven… heaven was supposed to be full of people, right? All the people I thought I'd see here, and it was completely deserted. So that left the question: where was I?

I tried to think back and see what I remembered. I was at the ball, and then I left, then… I wondered around outside for a little and then… then…I couldn't remember. Strange. I shrugged it off and jumped up off the ground and began to walk along the beach. The waves crashed against my feet as I walked, trying to remember. It was starting to get dark before I realized how long I had been walking. The tide had come in and washed away all of my footprints, removing any evidence that I had been there at all. I sat down again and sighed. I couldn't think of any other explanation for what this place might be, so I had concluded that this must be heaven. But if this was heaven, it was dead boring. What did they expect you to do all day, watch the waves?

I lay down and looked up at the sky. It wasn't completely dark, and I could still see quite a distance. I had a feeling though, that this wouldn't last long. I got up to look for some firewood, so that I could make a fire. I had no idea how… but I was still going to try. I wondered around the fringe of the forest, picking up odd bits of branches and driftwood.

When my arms were finally full, I carried my findings back to the beach. I assumed the sea had already come in as far as it would and would hopefully start going out soon. I dumped all the wood on the floor and arranged it in a neat pile. After I had finished piling it up, I stood back to admire it. Now I only needed to light it, and I'd be all set.

The only question was, how?

This was one of those times that I wished I had listened to Charlie and taken the Brownies up on their offer. At least then I would've known how to light a fire. Suddenly I thought of something. I remember seeing something, in a movie or something; they used rocks to light a fire! _Yes!_ I thought _I'm on a roll here_. After doing a little happy dance, I stumbled back over to the forest and looked on the ground for a stone.

I was still combing the grass when I remembered what kind of stone I was supposed to be looking for- Flint. It was supposed to be a dark, black, shiny looking thing. After ten minutes I had successfully managed to locate flint and I made my way back over to the wood-pile. I sat down, still grinning triumphantly, until I realized I had no idea how I was supposed to light it. Did I hit it with a stick or something?

Just then something caught my eye. A flash of silver on my wrist. Of course! I had to bang it against steel. I hoped my bracelet would work, even though I wasn't sure if it was made out of steel. I took it off and knelt so that the sparks would hopefully fall on the wood. I struck the metal once, twice, three times. A spark flew off from the metal and landed on the fire. _Yes!_ I thought. Suddenly it went out. Ugh, great thinking Bella, your fire's just gone out. This time I tried again and waited. The spark actually made it into a little flame before it flickered and died.

_One more time_ I told myself. I struck the metal and a couple of sparks landed on the wood. I tried to use my body to shield the little flickers of fire from the wind. When they didn't go out a let out a sigh of relief and a gust of air came out of my lungs, accidentally causing the flame to flicker, before raging to life again. I continued to blow lightly on the fire until it blazed brightly. I lay down next to it, trying to warm up- I hadn't noticed until that moment how cold it even was.

I tried to get comfortable in the sand, but it was just to cold. Even with the warmth provided by the fire I was still shivering uncontrollably. I determined to get myself warm, so I tried to bury myself in the sand. Hopefully that would at least provide shelter from the wind and the cold air. Once I had covered myself up to my waist I was exhausted. I decided that I wasn't bothered anymore, and fell asleep.

………………………………………………………………………….

I was dreaming. I saw so many different things- it was like I was dying again. Then the strangest thing happened- I saw my dad. It wasn't a memory I don't think… or maybe it was, but a really old one. It was Charlie, telling me goodnight. He stroked my hair, and I could feel it. He kissed my forehead, and I could feel it again. I felt the tears coming. It was like I was awake, but I was trapped inside my dream. He laughed at something I had said, and the whispered _"Goodnight Bella, Have wonderful dreams- full of laughter and happiness, and by the way, I'll always be just downstairs to get rid of those evil monsters"_ he mocked. I laughed through my tears. I love my dad… _loved_. I coughed again and watched my dream change.

I was on the ship, getting ready for the ball. Alice and Rosalie were there, helping me. I felt something stab my heart. My best friends were… gone. They were either down there… still surviving or… I gulped. I didn't want them to be gone, I wished I'd been nicer to them, I should have stayed at that stupid party, then at least I would have been with them when I died. They were my best friends and I had ditched them because I was too stubborn for my own good… now they _used_ to be my best friends- past tense. I was dead now. The tears were still flowing rapidly as my dream changed once again.

I saw a flash of green, a flash of bronze- it was Edward. My heart stopped. I was seeing him again. Not in real life or course, but this was just as good. My memory had remembered exactly what he looked like that night, even if I hadn't taken it in consciously. I saw it now: he was wearing a deep black tux with a proper bow tie and everything. He looked phenomenal and that didn't even cover it. He was unbelievably beautiful, just like an angel. I sighed and watched him through my memories.

We were twirling around at that dance. I knew I was definitely not doing that, so it must have been Edward, he was incredible. I looked so content there, in his arms and he smiled as he pulled me closer. I giggled slightly, remembering how far away we were at the beginning. Then something strange happened. It was like my mind was making it up as it went along. When Edward pulled me close this time, he put a hand on my cheek and leaned in. I could feel my heart start to beat faster as he did, and I gasped slightly when I could feel his breath on my face. But then he confused me by passing my face, moving instead, to my ear.

"_I'm going to be there for you Bella, Always"_ he whispered. I shivered as his breath caressed my face. Suddenly he pulled back and his stunning green eyes were filled with pain. It made my heart break in two. I tried to reach out to him, but my hands were so heavy. Then it was all in fast forward. I pulled away from him and ran to the door. The only thing I could pick up was his broken plea for me to stay, and then my harsh refusal. I mentally kicked myself for doing that as I watched myself tumble around on the deck while I sobbed to myself.

All of a sudden, everything went black and I could concentrate again. I heard screaming in the background, but I didn't know exactly where it was coming from. As I slowly got more alert, I realised it was me that was screaming. I immediately clamped a hand over my mouth and felt the tears run down my cheeks. Why did I have to die? All the things that I had left behind were being shoved in front of me and I couldn't bear it.

My eyes flew open and I realised it was morning. I sat up and looked at my makeshift blanket. It looked like I had tossed and turned so much during the night, that I had spread the sand back out and gotten quite a lot of it into the fire, which was now barely ignited. I picked up a handful of sand and dumped it on what remained of it.

My stomach growled- I was really hungry all of a sudden. I got up and stretched. I was, without a doubt, never going to sleep on the beach again. I walked grudgingly over to the forest, to see if there were any fruit trees. I wondered around for a bit, but I came up empty. I decided to venture further into the forest- it wasn't like anything could hurt me in heaven, right? I stumbled over some tree branches and loose roots, but I didn't fall once. Things were looking up for me.

From nowhere there was a rustle in the bushes next to me. I guess I spoke to soon. I backed up and grabbed a dead branch from the floor, and put it up in front of me. My first instinct would've been to run, and since I was wrong about my luck changing, I think the probability of me tripping over, was really high. I heard a high pitched growl, before something charged straight for me.

**A/N: **

**So... how'd you like that? sorry this chapter was a bit boring, but it was a filler and i promise it will get better from here on. So thats it.. all my ready made chapters posted. im nearly finished on my next one though so you might get it tomorrow or the day after. **

**Now for the interesting bit. Whoever guesses first, what was going to attack bella gets!.... Ummm SOMETHING!!! haha okay, you'll get special credit in the next chapter so everyone knows you guessed right!, how does that sound? and _maybe _a preview of the next chapter... depends on how long it takes me to finish it.**

**Thanks for all the reviews!! 55 already!!!! every single one makes me SO happy you wouldn't believe it, so thanks.**

**Please Review! You guys are all awesome!**


	15. Mcdonalds or Burger King?

**A/N: WOW. Thank you guys for all the reviews! 72 already, im so happy!! Okay so there were quite a lot of people who asked when is edward coming into the story, well he is coming VERY VERY SOON! **

**Special Mention to: crazygirl100, well done you were the first one to guess correctly! hope you like this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own twilight... or Mcdonalds....Or Burger King.... Please dont sue me! thank you. **

_Why?_ I asked myself. Only in heaven would I be attacked by some random wild beast. I heard it as it travelled steadily over the leaves and debris to get closer. I looked up and my instincts kicked in away- though instead of running, I tried to find something to defend my self with. I grabbed a large branch from the floor and lifted it. It was pretty light, but after a while it would get heavy.

_See Bella, This isn't so hard. Just whack it and it'll go away _I told myself. I heard it rustling through the bushes and I started to panic. My breathing picked up and I felt the adrenaline running through my system. This was it, my first battle in heaven. Kind of ironic if you ask me- wasn't heaven supposed to be about peace and everything. I shook myself out it, as something started to move from behind the last bush. I could see it clearly now, its hair matted, and face filthy. I dropped my stick and stared at it in awe. It wasn't an animal- it wasn't going to attack me.

_It _was Alice.

My mind recognized this and it finally let my legs move infinitesimally. I staggered over towards her, almost in slow motion and she did the same. Eventually we were face to face with each other; neither of us had said anything since we had seen each other. I couldn't take it anymore and I pulled her into a hug. I grabbed onto her for dear life and I felt the tears flowing down my face. She dug her face into my neck and I could feel her tears as well. I was gasping and spluttering as I continued to hold onto her, and I felt something strange in my heart. It was almost like hope. Something like that, but it couldn't be, I was stuck here- but at least I had Alice by my side now.

We stayed like that for a long time. I didn't know exactly how long, because we didn't have any idea what time it was for starters. It felt like forever when one of us, at long last, broke the silence.

"Bella?" she asked, "I-It's you, right?" I tried to hide my laugh, but I was too giddy. I let out a half sob, half cry and answered her.

"Of course it's me Alice" I reassured her. She tightened her grip on me and started crying again. I patted her back and started crying as well.

"I-I'm sorry" Alice sniffed apologetically, "I was just so…scared" she whispered.

"Me too Alice" I told her truthfully. I might not have noticed it before, but I had been scared and I _was_ scared, even though I had Alice with me.

"I thought I was the only one!" she wailed. I pulled her tighter, if that was possible, and continued crying myself.

"Well that's not as bad as me, I thought I was… _dead_" I gulped. She giggled slightly.

"Silly Bella, if this was heaven there'd be shopping malls everywhere and lots and lot of hot guys" she sighed. I laughed at her. Of course that's what heaven would be like to her. The only thing I would want in _my_ heaven was Edward.

"So we're not dead?" I asked

"No Bella, we're not dead" she confirmed.

………………………………………

We had managed to walk out of the jungle without being confronted by any other wild animals. We were still holding each other's hands, as though we couldn't survive anymore without physical contact. When we finally reached the beach that I had stayed the night, I lead Alice over to the shoreline and sat down.

I was thinking about some things to ask her. I didn't want to send her over the edge with my questions because I could see she was quite close to breaking. Getting washed up on this island must've been traumatising for her. I wondered why I didn't feel like that. I wasn't happy or comfortable; I wasn't scared or breaking to pieces. I had gone numb and nothing mattered but surviving- it my own personal protective wall.

"What should we do?" I asked her. She probably had no idea what to do now, but neither did I.

"Well… I don't know. I'm starving right now, so maybe getting some food would be a good idea, and we need to get some water because I'm parched" she told me, jumping up. I nodded- I had nearly forgotten that I went into the jungle to find food. We jogged up into the forest again, this time I was looking carefully for any animals.

"So what do you feel like Alice?" I joked, "I mean if we looked far enough, we might come across a MacDonald's or Burger King" she laughed at me and I laughed along with her. At this point things weren't looking to good food wise. We hiked up into the deep forest and found a couple of fruit trees, but I had no idea what they were so they might be poisonous. We decided to skip the mystery fruit.

Finally we gave up and returned to the beach. Although our food hunt was unsuccessful, we did manage to find a small stream that looked clean enough to drink from, and it did work quite well- at least we wouldn't die thirsty. I was beyond tired as we collapsed on the beach and looked up and the sky.

"Do you think we'll survive?" Alice whispered to me. I could tell she was scared and so was I.

"I hope so Alice" I whispered back, "I _really _hope so". Who knew, maybe this could be _good_ for us.

**Edward's POV **

I groaned and rolled over. The memories from last night were becoming too disturbing. It all started off great. I was there, enduring one of Emmett and jasper's rants about why they were old enough to drink and I wasn't. I turned around, bored out of my mind, when I saw the most beautiful pair of brown eyes in the world. My heart stopped when I saw she was leaving, I couldn't let her go and not talk to her.

I turned around to give Emmett and jasper a hasty good bye, and reached for my jacket. By the time I had turned around again, she was looking at me, her eyes looking slightly amazed. I smiled lightly at her and waved. She surprised me by looking behind her and around her- As if I'd wave at someone _other_ than her. I tried to hide my smile from her as she turned back around.

She looked surprised as her eyes met mine again, and she waved shyly back at me. I waved her over here, and hoped that Emmett and jasper wouldn't bother us. Unfortunately with my luck, they probably would. She looked down sadly and shook her head. All of a sudden I felt something - I was aching not to let her go, so when she wasn't looking, I made sure that Emmett and jasper were fully occupied before I ran over to the other side of the room. I smiled slightly at the chaos of the moment and went back to my daydreams, I could remember that night in perfect clarity.

_I was running up the stairs now, my heart pounding furiously in my haste. I stumbled on the last step and reached out to grab her hand. She turned around suddenly, gasping, and looked confused as she took me in. I wanted to say hi to her, but that stupid bet stopped me from speaking. She looked uncomfortable in silence and she cleared her throat._

"_Hi" she whispered quietly. _Yes!_ I celebrated. I could talk to her now, unhindered by the agreement. I chuckled lightly. _

"_Will you dance with me?" I asked her. She considered it for a moment, but then looked back at me with a sad expression. _

"_I-I-I can't" she said, pulling away from me. This was the only chance I would get to talk to her, and I wanted to make it worthwhile. There was no way she was leaving now. _

"_Please" I whispered. I was ecstatic when she nodded slowly. I pulled her carefully down the stairs- I didn't want her to trip again. A song was just about to start, so I just took her to the edge of the dance floor. I didn't know exactly how comfortable she'd be with the situation, so I placed my hands lightly on her waist, and she lifted hers slowly to my shoulders. _

_I heard the song start and I felt myself start dancing, but I couldn't concentrate on any of that. I was too mesmerized with the beautiful women in front of me. She was wearing an incredible navy blue ball gown that suited her brilliantly, and her hair bounced around her shoulders while we danced. She hadn't worn that much make-up and she was still stunning, but I bet she'd look even better without it. _

_She looked up and caught me staring at her. She blushed and looked down, pretending to watch her feet. Automatically I put my finger under her chin and pulled her face up. _

"_Hey, don't look down" I told her. She smiled and moved closer to me- Good, she was getting used to this. I laughed lightly and started moving her hips top the beat. She laughed and I pulled her closer to me, I hoped that this was a long song, because I wasn't letting go of her anytime soon. The song continued for a while before she looked back up at me. When she did she gasped and bit her lip- she was so attractive when she did that. I couldn't stand it anymore and I pulled her right up against me. She rested her head on my chest and I held her tight. It felt so right holding her- it was like she fit with me. _

_Suddenly she took a step back form me. _Had the song finished already?_ I listened closely- no it was still going. _

"_I'm sorry" she spluttered, "I can't do this" I wanted to say that it didn't matter, but before I could she had fled the dance floor. When I finally caught up with her, she was at the door. I grabbed her wrist again, and made her face me. _

"_Where are you going?" I asked her, trying to keep my voice steady. She shook her head at me-I hated it when she did that. "Please tell me" I asked again, she wasn't getting away. She shook her head again. Ugh I hated that so much. I sighed, if I couldn't stop her now I was at least going to know one thing. _

"_At least tell me your name?" I asked. _

"_Bella" she whispered. The pain in her voice made my heart clench, I hated not being able to help her. "And yours" she asked. _

"_Edward" I whispered back, hoping with everything I had she wouldn't leave. She looked down at my hand and brushed it off. _

"_Good bye Edward" she whimpered. I stood there shocked. I felt so strange, a mix between sadness and anger. I had let her go, and I might not see her again. I don't know exactly how long I stood there- I just knew that it hurt. I wasn't going to go back to Emmett and jasper; they'd wonder where I had been. No, I was just going to stand there and let it hurt. _

_Suddenly I felt the ship jump up. I was surprised. The ship wasn't supposed to do that. It was perfectly engineered in everyway, and the water wasn't choppy enough to make us go that high. I started to get worried. Bella was out there all alone, and I had no idea if she had gone back to her room or not. I knew how clumsy she was- what were the odds that she's fall in?_

_The next thing I knew i was bolting down the side of the ship, looking for any sign of her. During my frantic searching, the ship continued to bounce around on the water. If I didn't find her soon, crap, I was scared of what would happen. Just then I saw her. She was leaning against the railing, crying. I was just going over to her when the boat started tipping. She was going to fall in._

_To my surprise she did something I didn't expect her to do in a million years. She yelled my name as she started to fall/ my name! Without thinking, I catapulted myself at her, cradling her in my arms as we fell quickly into the cold winter sea._

I was broken out of my memories by something being thrown into my face.

"Hey over here!" the voice shouted. I was too dazed to tell who it was, but I was too exhausted to ask.

"Is he still alive?" the other voice asked frantically. I coughed; emptying my lungs of any more sea water there was and rolled onto my front.

"He is!" the first voice celebrated.

"That was a close call Eddie boy" the second voice said.

_Oh. Hell. NO!_

**A/N: i hope you liked that bit of Edward's POV at the end, tell me what you think PLEASE REVIEW!!! **

**You guys are all awesome**

**~Nikki**


	16. Survival 101

**A/N: Hey guys, WOW... 91 reviews, thank you SO MUCH!! only 9 more untill we get to a 100!!!  
sorry i haven't updated in a while, i went on holiday and i couldn't get onto this site from my laptop So- I'm going to give you two chapters, one today and one tomorow!!**

**thank you guys, your reviews make me so happy!!**

**Disclaimer: Twilight=not mine... get it?**

**........................................................................................................**

**Edward's POV**

I squeezed my eyes shut tighter. I hoped that they would think I was dead, and just leave me alone. I _really_ wasn't in the mood to deal with them right now.

"Eddie get up, naptime's over!" Emmett's voice boomed in my ear. I groaned and rolled over, avoiding Emmett's request, my eyes still closed. I heard him and jasper rustling around on the sand, trying to make me sit up.

"That's it" I heard jasper say, while pushing my back up. I unwillingly opened my eyes and came face to face with my two 'Saviours'.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" I shouted, angry they had interrupted my daydream.

"What do you mean what are we doing here? What are _you_ doing here?" Emmett asked. I stood up and looked around. We were on a big beach, near a huge mountain and just on the edge of the forest- I had never seen anywhere like it.

"Where are we?" I asked. Jasper looked at me sadly.

"Edward we don't know" he told me.

"No idea at all" Emmett added. I nodded and fell back to the ground. I decided to list everything we knew. Well, first of all, we were on a beach, in the middle of the sea… nowhere. Second, I was stuck here with Jasper and the idiot-man. Well so far things aren't looking that good for me.

"What's wrong? Why don't you just phone for help" I said simply. I knew they had probably tried it, but knowing how thick Emmett was, they might not have.

"No reception" jasper answered. I hit the ground with my hand. No reception meant no phone, which meant no communication, which meant-

"Oh no" Emmett sighed, collapsing next to me, "We're stuck here". Jasper and I glared at him for a while before he noticed us.

"You _just _figured that out" I sighed exasperatedly, "Gosh Emmett I knew you were thick but _come on_!" he shrugged and lay down on his back pretending to sunbathe and closed his eyes. Ugh, he had to be the most annoying person on this planet, maybe even the whole universe. I cursed myself inwardly. I wouldn't even be here if I had just…

"Wait!" I said suddenly, "Is there any one else- did you find anyone else?" I asked urgently.

"I-I" jasper stuttered, surprised by my sudden outburst, "No, sorry, when I woke up shrugs-a-lot over there was making a sandcastle next to my head, and then we found you" my heart sank. I didn't save her. Bella was probably out there somewhere, scared out of her mind and I _didn't_ save her.

I sank to my knees and put my head in my hands. It should've been Bella here right now, not me. I pulled at my hair and cursed under my breath until jasper tapped me on the back. I looked up and his eyes were full of worry.

"You okay?" he asked. Unexpectedly my whole body started shaking. I was furious, but I didn't know why.

"No Jasper! I am _not_ okay!" I yelled at him. He stumbled back a bit and tripped over in the sand. I glared at him angrily and kicked some sand up into the air. "Why on earth would I be okay jasper?! We are stuck on a deserted island, I didn't save the girl, and worst of all I'm stuck with _you_!" I bellowed at him, while he lay there in amazement. He didn't look scared or frightened or anything. I was about to throw myself at him when I felt two strong hands grab my hands and drag them behind my body. I struggled wildly against them, thrashing violently from side to side.

"Let go of me!" I yelled.

"No" he said darkly. I continued to kick sand up and flail against his grip. Out of the corner of my eye I saw jasper stand up and rapidly move far away from me.

"Calm down" he whispered, low enough that I probably wasn't supposed to hear it.

"How can I calm down?!" I bellowed. He cringed inwardly as I shouted. After that no one attempted to say anything to me. They just looked at me with dark faces and worry in their eyes. I wanted to rip their heads off. Here they were, keeping me from looking for Bella, acting all _concerned_ and _worried._ Finally I gave up. I went limp and fell into the sand. I heard Emmett and jasper mumbling above me, but I couldn't concentrate on them. All the rest of my energy was focused on Bella. I needed to find her.

"We're sorry Edward. But- I mean if you want we could go search the island. By the looks of it its pretty big, and we've only been on the beach, so there's no telling if there really_ is_ anyone out there" Emmett said. Wow, that was pretty much the most intelligent thing I've ever heard him say. Search the island- why didn't I think of that?

I looked up and them and nodded. I was nowhere near close enough to talk to them, let alone forgive them. They helped me up and I brushed all the sand off of me. We were just on the fringe of the jungle when we heard the most horrific sound. A scream. A _human scream_. We looked at each other as our faces paled- that scream belonged to one of our girls.

**Bella's POV**

We were running through the jungle as fast as we could. We had heard a scream- someone else was on the island. I knew who I wished it was on the inside. I wished it was _him._ I wished it was Edward. But it wouldn't be, it _couldn't_ be him. I sighed loudly as we continued.

We were getting to a particularly steep hill. I think we were getting closer, but I really had no idea because the insistent screaming had suddenly stopped. I just hoped we weren't too late.

As we were climbing, I heard a shriek from below me.

"Alice? Are you okay?" I asked her, not climbing any higher.

"No" she whimpered. I looked down at her and her dress was stuck on a branch.

"Alice just pull it off, it doesn't matter" I told her. She shook her head.

"This is an original dress that I made _myself!_" she screamed at me, "I am _not_ ripping it, just go on without me" she whined dramatically. I shook my head and made my way down to her.

"Hey Alice, what's that?" I asked pointing off into the distance.

"What?" she answered, turning around. I took my chance and pulled hard on the material until I heard it rip. Alice, unfortunately, heard this too. She glared at me- fire in her eyes.

"Hey Alice… guess it was just a twig" I said shakily as she continued to glare at me. I moved swiftly up the rest of the hill, followed closely by a livid Alice. When we reached the top of the hill, I felt something grab my hand. I spun around and it was Alice, still fuming.

"Do you know how long it took me to make that dress Bella?" she said flatly and darkly. I shrugged lightly and she glowered at me- her eyes slits. "And now, do you know what I'm going to have to wear, now that you've ruined my dress?"

"I'm really sorry Alice I-I-I was just trying to get you up that hill and…" I trailed off.

"Leaves!! I'm going to have to wear leaves! Like some jungle savage!" she screeched.

"Whoa calm down guys, and here I thought I was the only one who ever fought with Alice". I stared at Alice, stunned. Neither she nor I had said that. We both turned slowly to find out who the voice belonged to.

"Rosalie?" I whispered. She squealed and ran over to us. We both hugged her tightly and asked the same question.

"What are you doing here?" Alice and I asked at the same time.

"Well what are _you _doing here? I got here the same way as you" she said.

"But I meant how did you get _here_" Alice clarified, gesturing to the surroundings.

"Ummmm… well when I woke up, I was on this beach, and no-one was there so I got really scared and walked into the jungle, which I know was stupid but it looked really nice and safe. And then, as I was walking up here, I saw this really, really big snake and I-"

"So you were the person that screamed?" I asked. She nodded and continued.

"So I had just successfully lost the snake when I'd found you two shooting daggers at each other" she finished, tears rolling down her face. I hadn't noticed it, but Alice and I were crying as well. I pulled them both in for another hug, as we all cried together. We had the whole group here now, and nothing was going to tear us apart.

Suddenly there was a rustling in the bush opposite us. _Not agai_n! I moaned in my head. Alice, Rosalie and I moved slowly away from the bush, so that we were a fair distance away from it. We saw something poke out from it and Alice screamed. That made the rustling even more pronounced. There was also a smacking noise and a mumbled 'ouch'. So there were more people? This day just got better and better!

Three figures began to slowly emerge from the bushes. I couldn't believe my eyes. All of the girls were shocked into silence as we watched the three guys approach us. It was Edward. He was here, he was safe. I almost felt like screaming- that's how happy I was. From the second he steeped out from those bushes, his eyes found mine and I just couldn't tear them away. We continued to stare at each other, moving unconsciously closer. We were little over an Alice away when someone interrupted us.

"Edward? Edward _Cullen_?" He unwillingly tore his eyes away from mine, and looked over to the person who called him. Alice was staring straight at him, her eyes scrutinizing his every move. Suddenly recognition flashed in his eyes.

"Alice?" he whispered. She nodded and flung herself at him. He pulled her in and hugged her tightly. The rest of us stood around them, confused by what was going on. all of a sudden the tall blond guy who was standing nearest to me spoke up. I'm glad he did cause any longer and he looked like he'd rip off Edward's head.

"Edward. What. Are. You. Doing?!" he shouted, as calmly as he could. Edward looked taken aback from his outburst. Edward let go of Alice and walked over to him.

"It's okay Jasper, calm down" he told him. Jasper glared angrily at him.

"Why is it okay Edward?" he asked loudly, still quite cross at him, as he walked quickly over to Alice.

"This is Alice" Edward said calmly, "My cousin" suddenly the big, curly haired guy next to Rosalie spoke up.

"Alice Brandon?" he asked. She nodded her head slowly, taking him in. "I thought I recognized you" he mumbled, "Do you remember me?" Alice concentrated for a moment, before her eyes went wide.

"Emmett?" She asked excitedly. She ran over to him and hugged him tightly, just like she did with Edward. "Oh my god I can't believe this!" she screamed happily. Emmett laughed loudly and set her down.

"Long time no see huh?" he said smiling. She nodded and looked back over to Edward.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked. I laughed quietly, it seemed like we were asking that question a lot today.

"Well we were just tagging along with Eddie's parents before we all moved away, just for one last time" he said, a hint of sadness in his eyes. A delicate cough interrupted them. We turned around to see Rosalie fuming.

"Can somebody _please _tell me what's going on?!" she asked, "_Before_ I kill someone" Emmett walked over to her calmly, with his hands up in surrender.

"Okay I'm sorry, I forget there are other people around sometimes" he apologized. He pulled rose over to Alice and the guy named jasper. I stepped back feeling slightly left out and bumped into something hard.

"Whoa, where are you going?" Edward asked. I turned around, blushing profusely and apologized to him. "That's stupid, don't apologize" he said, pulling me towards the others. I shivered slightly, remembering how cold I was getting. Edward looked at me worriedly and suggested to the others that we get a fire going first, and then tell the story. I told him it wasn't necessary but he wasn't having it.

As soon as the fire was set and lit, we all sat around it in a circle. I sat down next to Edward and turned my attention to Emmett.

"Okay so to make sure no one ruins the story" Emmett started, "Edward and Alice have to shut up" Edward groaned quietly next to me and so did Alice. I chuckled quietly. "Well it's really nothing much, don't be disappointed okay" he said getting comfortable. Rose, Jasper and I listened carefully, seeing as we were the only ones who didn't know what was going on.

"Alice is Edward's cousin, as you already know. So you're all probably wondering where I fit into this. Well when I was young, my dad used to work_ all_ the time, so my mum never had anytime to herself. So one day, she decided she was going to dump me on someone else. She was really good friends with Edward's mother, but since she worked as well, she went to the next closest person"

"My mum" Alice said. Emmett glared at her and she smiled sneakily.

"As I was saying" Emmett sighed, "She went to Alice's mum, who was Edward's mum's sister. So when we got there she dropped me off and Alice and I became best friends" he said smiling. Edward coughed beside me, breaking him out of his reverie. "Oh yeah, then Edward showed up, confused as hell, and we've been friends ever since" he finished.

"Well except that Alice moved away a couple of years after that to go to some fancy high school and this is the first time we've seen her in years" Edward added.

We spent the rest of the night talking and getting to know each other. Jasper and Emmett seemed pretty cool, and they were both really funny. Jasper was always calmer than Emmett, Which made them nearly complete opposites. And then there was Edward. He spent most of his night talking to Alice and Rosalie, but he always stayed close to me. Occasionally he would shoot me glances out of the corner of his eye, like he was making sure I was still there.

Eventually we all decided to go to sleep, seeing as it wouldn't be dark forever and that now was the best time. Emmett threw some dirt onto the fire, putting it out and we all spread out around the clearing. Without the fire it was really starting to get cold and I started shivering. Edward was lying down close to me and he noticed.

"You're cold?" he asked. I shook my head but he didn't believe me. "Come here" he said, gesturing for me to come closer to him. I shook my head again and he sighed. He got up and crawled over to me, and lay down right next to me. Before I knew what was happening, I was in his arms, cradled against his chest.

"What are you doing?" I asked him. My voice was barely a whisper but I'm sure he heard it.

"Survival 101" he explained, "If we get closer, we'll be warm. It's basic stuff Bella"

"Well maybe it is. But how do I know that you're just using it as an excuse to hug me?" I asked slyly. He looked down at me and something flashed in his eyes, but it was too quick for me to figure out what it was.

"And would that be such a bad thing?" he whispered. I considered his words carefully. I wondered what would happen if…

"It probably would be" I sighed sadly. He looked confused for a minute before tightening his grip around me.

"Too bad" he mumbled sleepily.

"That's what I thought" I whispered to myself, falling asleep quickly now that I was in Edward's strong arms.

**A/N:**

**SO please review and you'll get another chapter tomorow!!!!!!!!**

**~Nikki**


	17. Big, Big Water

**A/N: Thanks you so much for all the reviws guys, we're past the 100 point!!!**

**Just to let you know... i wrote this chapter on the plane so if it sounds a bit iffy thats why, okay?**

**............................................................................**

I woke up abruptly, breathing heavily. Suddenly all the memories from last night flooded back. So it really happened? _Wow_ I sighed contently, rolling over onto my side. It was really dark, but the moon shone down on the clearing, making it glow magically. I stretched and tried to roll over, but something grabbed me around the waist- hard. I spun around quickly to see what it was.

There, under the shining moonlight, was the most incredible thing I had laid my eyes on. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. His eyelids were a pale lavender colour, probably from the lack of sleep since the crash, and his hair swayed slightly in the wind, making his heavenly scent drift towards me.

Slowly I lifted my hand from the ground and placed it softly on his cheek. His skin was soft and smooth. I rubbed my thumb in circles down his cheek and around to his neck. I slid my hands up into his hair and marvelled at how soft it was. Suddenly he pulled me closer, allowing my face to rest in the crook of his neck.

"Bella" he whispered. I froze. He was awake?! He was going to wake up and find me here- he'd never speak to me again. I waited until he would discover I was there, but it never happened. I finally allowed myself to peek up at him. He was asleep; eye's closed, hair messy, and a slight smile playing on his lips. He said my name… in his _sleep_. I couldn't help but blush, thankfully though there was no-one there to see it. I rested there comfortably against him until I fell asleep again.

………………………………………………………

Something was shaking, and shaking hard. I groaned and tried to roll over, but something stopped me.

"Bella" a voice chimed above me. My heart started beating faster immediately, preparing itself for who it might be. But as I got more alert, the owner of the voice became clear.

"Bella come on!" she screamed, the shaking getting more unruly.

"Alice" I said groggily, "What?" My mind was too tired to form a better question than that.

"They're missing!" she screamed frantically. My mind tried to process the words but my mind had turned to mush.

"Who" I asked.

"The boys!" she exclaimed. Suddenly my mushy brain reared back to life immediately- Edward was missing. I bolted upright and looked around. She was right, there was absolutely no one else in sight except for a distressed looking rose.

"But-But they were here! Last night, they were here with us!" I said.

"I know, I know" Alice sobbed, "But they're not here!" so many situations were rushing through my mind, becoming increasingly more disturbing. Edward getting lost, Edward getting attacked by an animal, Edward falling off a cliff- Edward was out there, and he was in trouble.

"Alice, we need to find them" I told her calmly. For some reason, even though I was scared for Edward, my brain seemed to push the fear to the back, so my instincts kicked in. Alice nodded and helped me stand up. She brought me over to the other side of the clearing where rose was sitting awkwardly on the floor, staring off into space.

"Rose" Alice said. Rosalie looked up at her with dead eyes and stood up shakily. It scared me a bit- to see my friends like this. It was like they weren't them, they were zombies. We walked together down the hill and into the deep forest. It was an excruciatingly long walk, giving the fear time to work its way back to the front of my mind. I think it was a while after the 5th time I called for Edward when we had finally reached a clearing in the trees.

We were walking along; well you could call it staggering, when all of a sudden I was pulled down into a bush. I sprawled on the ground, stunned, and tried to find what I had tripped on. It wasn't only me that was on the floor though, both Alice and rose where down with me, Alice being the only one who wasn't slumped on the floor.

"Alice-"I began

"Shh, I saw something move!" she whispered urgently. Rose and I managed to get up off the floor without rustling the bush. When we were finally balanced enough that we didn't fall into one anther Alice spoke again,

"Okay, on three we look over the bush" she explained, "One, Two Thr--"she stopped. We all raised our heads above the bush and found something we never expected to see. There were three things I was certain of in that moment. One: I was _really_ glad that we hadn't waited till three, two: I was incredibly relieved and Three: No one should look that good- ever. We were greeted by the sight of three incredibly amazing guys, completely topless and mucking about in a small lagoon not far from the bush we were hiding behind. It was like a car washing advert gone wild.

As I watched them playing about I couldn't help but let my eyes drift towards Edward. His bronze hair dangled into his shining emerald eyes, the muscles in his arm flexing as he splashed the other guys with huge waves of water. I was broken out of my daydream by Alice.

"Oh"

"My" I breathed

"God" Rosalie finished.

Unfortunately, or not - I really couldn't tell at this point, the boys noticed us and quickly jumped out of the water. They walked towards us slowly, almost like they were teasing us. I looked up at Edward and he smiled slyly.

"Hey" he said as he closed the distance between us, taking my hands in his. I looked down, unable to say anything. Before I knew it, I was watching the water droplets fall out of his hair and onto his chest and… _Bella! _I scolded myself. I looked back up into his eyes shyly, turning bright red. There was a huge smile across his lips and that just made me blush even redder.

"Admiring the artwork Bella?" he asked slyly. I looked back down at the ground and I was almost certain that my face was stained red like this forever. I felt a finger under my chin, pulling my face back up. When my eyes met his again, they were smouldering lightly. "I don't mind Bella, I really don't" he told me. I was about to say something before Emmett interrupted.

"So" he announced, "We have found breakfast!" this was met by a stunned silence from the girls and couple of low chuckles from the guys.

"You did it? You found food?" I asked Edward. He nodded proudly and gestured over to a pile of fish. I couldn't contain my excitement as I ran over to it and stared hungrily. Even though the smell of raw fish was quite unappetising, my stomach was too hungry to care. Alice and Rosalie, both taking their turns staring at the glorious pile of food, joined me shortly.

"I don't even like fish" Alice said hungrily. I heard a couple of chuckles from the back again, the loudest of which coming from jasper.

"So are we just going to stare at it or are we going to eat?!" Emmett yelled. Alice, Rosalie and I just continued to stare at it, even as it was being carried away slowly by the guys. It was lucky that the guys did know how to cook, because right now, we girls were useless. We sat there, almost drooling, watching the fish cook. My stomach was rumbling so violently it felt like an earthquake.

After what seemed like forever, the guys finished off cooking them and brought them over to us.

"I'd like to make an announcement!" Emmett said loudly, clearing his throat. We all groaned, the mouth-watering aroma of fish drifting towards us. "To the brave survivors, May we live and be strong, healthy, tall… and whatever else we need, thank you" he finished taking a seat. It wasn't really an announcement, sort of like a prayer.

We then immediately dove into the pile of fish and began stuffing our faces. I had to say, for shipwrecked fish, I was _really_ good, or maybe it was just because I hadn't eaten in two and a half days. It was probably around midday when we had finished all of it, leaving a pile of fish bones on the ground.

Now, we were all gathered around the fire pit again. Even though it was midday it was still cold and I wasn't surprised- it _was_ winter. We were all talking quietly and causally until Emmett interrupted. It seemed like he was doing that a lot today.

"Right, I'm bored" he declared, "who wants to go look around?" seeing as most of us had already seen most of the island no one was willing to go, but we all eventually caved when Emmett used his puppy dog eyes on us. _Damn Alice taught him well._

We all wondered slowly around the island, someone occasionally saying that there was a good source of water, or a good source of food nearby. But I wasn't listening to that- there was something else I was focused on. Edward. Ever since that night that I danced with him, I had never been able to get him off my mind- He was there 24/7. Not that I was complaining or anything, but even _I_ thought it was a bit excessive. All of a sudden I banged into something hard. I looked up and found Emmett's back right in front of me.

"Hey Em, some warning next time?" I asked him. He turned around and beamed at me with a huge smile. Without saying a word he gestured for us all to line up side by side and walk through the thinning in the trees. We did as he asked and we were confronted with an impressive view. We were standing on top of a big cliff, over looking the ocean and you could see it for miles.

"Wow" I breathed.

"Do you know what this reminds me of?" asked Emmett. Everybody turned to look at him expectantly as he backed off from the edge.

_"Big, Big, Big, Big water_

_It's very Big, Big, Big, Big water"_

He sang. It seemed familiar somehow… but I couldn't quite name it. Suddenly Alice jumped back with Emmett and began singing as well.

"_It's deep and dark and dangerous" _

She sang.

"_It's scary and it's strangerous"_

"_And things could rearrangerous_

_In that Big water"_

They finished and I suddenly got it.

"That used to be my favourite show!" I squealed. Emmett and Alice nodded with me while rose and jasper exchanged confused looks.

"Come on! You have to have heard that before!" Emmett said exasperatedly. They both shook their heads and looked back at us.

"The Land Before Time… ring any bells?" Alice asked. I heard a loud groan from behind me- it was Edward.

"What?" I asked him. He looked up at me with a bored expression, but a slight smile playing at his lips.

"The Land Before Time?" he asked incredulously.

"Only one of the best TV shows ever!" I told him.

"Oh please, I'd rather be deaf than listen to their bad grammar and those 'yep, yep yep's' all day long" he shot back. I was getting really angry at him, and I wasn't just going to let him criticize my favourite TV show of all time.

"Well the why the hell did you watch it?!" I yelled at him.

"Because Alice and Emmett used to strap me to the chair when they watched it so I couldn't get away!" he shouted. I was about a second away from hitting him so hard, but he didn't look angry at all, just amused.

"You think this is funny?!" I screamed at him. I was about to give him what he deserved, but I changed my mind at the last minute, and walked away from him. I was nearly running by the time I got back to the hill, tears already starting to leak from my eyes. I got to the top and sat on the ground, letting the tears fall freely. _This is so stupid Bella, it's just a TV show I scolded myself. _

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I shied away from it. I heard a sigh from behind me and then I was being carried in a pair of strong arms. I leaned into his chest and breathed in deeply. Who was I kidding; I couldn't stay mad at Edward. He sat me down on his lap this time and cradled my face against his chest, wiping away my tears with his thumb.

"Bella, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said those things" he whispered sincerely. I nodded, afraid that my voice would crack if I spoke. "Do you forgive me?" he asked. I thought about it for a moment and decided I couldn't _not_ forgive him.

"I forgive you" I whispered quietly.

"Thank you" he mumbled back. It wasn't long after that when the other finally found their way back and went off to their corners of the clearing. As I fell asleep in Edward's arms I began to see just how incredible the situation was. We were all stuck here, on a desert island, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but each other. It was better than anything I could've wished for.

**Please Review!!! you know you want to!**

**~Nikki**


	18. Christmas down in Africa

**A/N: WOW thanks for all the reviews guys, sorry this took so long to put up, everything's been getting a bit hectic lately...**

**So if anyone was wondering, the inspiration for the title of this chapter is "The 12 days of christmas" by straight no chaser, its really good i suggest you listen to it. **

**Disclaimer: Twilight STILL doesn't belong to me... unfortunately, neither does that song up there...**

**Alice's POV**

The next couple of days passed without much significance. Our lives on the island had become repetitive and, quite frankly, boring. I mean, sure there was lots do to and everything, but life just lacked that certain…spark.

We had all become accustomed to this new life though. The boys would always get up early, always find the food. The girls would get up later, make the fire, and wait for the boys to get back. We'd eat together, go down to the lake to get water together and then we'd just loaf around, doing nothing in particular, until it was dark and we were tired. Then we would get up, and do it_ all_ over again. But today something different happened. Something unusual, something good.

The boys had calculated that it had been exactly nine days since we had washed up on this island, making it approximately Christmas Eve. So this, of course, meant that we had to find some presents! Bella, Rosalie and I were going on the first present hunt, and when we got back Edward, jasper and Emmett were going. I thought it would be a good idea if we hid the presents we got around the island, so nobody could 'accidentally' stumble across them.

Bella, Rosalie and I were walking around in the jungle, looking for presents, when Rosalie collapsed on a tree trunk.

"Why can't we just get them something simple?!" Rose asked, throwing her arms up in the air. We had been looking for presents for them for the past hour and we still hadn't found anything.

"Great idea Rosalie, why don't we go to the dollar shop and get something from there? Oh yeah, cause we are in the middle of the jungle on some deserted island!" I shouted sarcastically.

"Well duh! I didn't mean something like that, I meant something that we don't have to scavenge around in the jungles for!" she replied hastily.

"You know that a good idea" said Bella, slumping onto the floor.

"Okay fine! What did you have in mind Rosalie?" I asked her. She looked at Bella and I strangely, like she was considering us for something. Then she spoke slowly and evenly.

"A kiss" she said.

"What?!" Bella exclaimed.

"You know a proper mouth to mouth kiss" Rosalie explained. I thought about it for a second, before nodding my head fervently. We both looked at Bella for an approval from her and she was bright red.

"But-But" she stammered.

"No buts Bella, its two against one" rose said sneakily.

"Can't I just get him something else, I mean we're not that-"

"Everybody can see how much you like Edward and how much he likes you so stop hiding it!" rose said.

"But he-"

"Bella" I whined, giving her my best puppy dog look. She scowled at me for a second before giving in and pouting.

"Fine!" she said angrily, "But if this doesn't go well, your buts are in so much trouble" Rose jumped up and started doing a happy dance.

"Come on, we'd better get back so that the guys can come and look for our presents" I yelled excitedly. Suddenly, tomorrow just got a _lot_ better.

………………………………………………………………………………..

It was around dawn when I woke up, the birds' songs drifting down to the clearing. I rolled over and looked at jasper. He was so cute when he slept- his hair all over the place, his lips slightly apart as he breathed in and out. I sat there for who knows how long before jasper finally woke up.

"Morning" he mumbled, his thick with sleep. I reached over to brush the hair away from his face.

"Good morning jasper" I whispered. He smiled widely and pulled me closer to him, kissing my hair lightly. "Merry Christmas" I sighed happily. He chuckled and pulled away, his eyes gleaming.

"Merry-"

He was cut off by a big heap of sand landing on us, and I giggled as I took in his bewildered expression. He spun around quickly to find Emmett standing there with a sly expression on his face.

"Merry Christmas" He said happily, before running over to Rosalie for cover. Jasper jumped up as quickly as he could and grabbed a hand full of mud, getting ready to throw it at Emmett.

"Hey, just calm down guys, it's Christmas, relax!" Edward said, already standing with his hands in the air. Unfortunately this distracted jasper from his target _just_ as he was about to throw, so the mud ended up flying towards Edward, which hit him square in the chest.

"Edward, I'm sorry, I was aiming for Emmett and-" Jasper tried to apologize, but was cut off again by Emmett's laughter.

"You- you should have seen your face!" Emmett boomed, tears coming out of his eyes. Edward and Jasper smiled evilly at each other before both grabbing a handful of mud and chucking it at Emmett. One hit him square on the chest, just like Edward's and one hit him right in the face. That stopped his laughing. He reached for another handful of mud but before anyone could move more than that, all three of the girls were next to their guys, trying to calm it down a bit.

"Jasper" I said. He looked at me, anger clear on his face, but amusement deep down in his eyes. He realised what he was doing wrong immediately and pulled me into a hug. And then it was over, that's how easily jasper could understand me.

As the guys went down to the lake to get cleaned up, Bella rose and I lit the fire. The guys had gone on an extra hunting trip last night, so that they didn't need to go today. We put the food on the fire and waited for the boys to get back.

"So remember the plan" Rose whispered, as she heard them coming back. We all nodded impatiently as we heard the guys get closer. Jasper came to sit next to me by the fire as we waited for the food to cook. He reached out for my hand and I gave it to him willingly. He squeezed it and smiled down at me, and I beamed back at him.

We ate and giggled and told jokes and played games and it was everything a Christmas was supposed to be- Happy, funny, and spent with the person you love. It had only been a little while ago that I realised that I loved jasper. He was everything I had wished for and more. We finally lay in the sand, exhausted from the food, and the games when Emmett uttered one word and one word only.

"Presents!" He shrieked. I laughed at his Childish manner and turned to look at jasper. Suddenly I was nervous. What if jasper didn't like me the way I liked him? He might have some other rich, beautiful girlfriend at home waiting for him.

"Come on" he whispered in my ear, making me shiver. He chuckled and pulled me up off the sand, pulling me to the trees. It didn't really matter _where_ I gave him his present, but I guess that he had his stashed somewhere far away.

Finally we arrived on a beach somewhere, and jasper stopped just on the fringe of the trees. I took a few steps forwards, the view was breathtaking. All you could see was the ocean, reaching out in every direction; the setting sun was gleaming orange on the surface of the water. I turned to jasper and he was standing there with a smug smile, with love written all over him. I ran back to him and pulled him into a hug. He chuckled quietly and pulled back from me a little, so he could see my face.

"Alice" he whispered, sending chills down my spine. He reached up with one hand and cupped my face with it. "I just want to tell you… I love you, Alice" he said. That was it- The most perfect present in the world, and it was time to give him his.

I tiptoed up so I could reach, and I touched my lips to his. He smiled under it and kissed me back slowly. It was sweet and chaste, but not for long. I let my hands make their way up to his hair as I pulled him closer. He gasped, but then tightened his hold around my waist, pulling me closer to him. Suddenly I felt something buzzing in my pocket. A dress with pockets? I just had to go for it didn't I? But it was jasper's broken mumbling that brought me back to reality.

"Don't answer it" he growled. I was more than happy to follow this order, but I couldn't stand it anymore. I pulled away from him and reached into my pocket.

A Phone?

What was that doing in there? I flipped it open to read what the matter was. Nothing was on the screen, so I assumed it was just turning on. I stuffed it back in my pocket and returned to jasper. He was standing there with an awestruck look on his face. I hope I didn't make him too mad by pulling away.

"Jasper I'm so sorry I-" he put a finger on my lips to silence me. He looked like he was calculating something.

"We need to get back to the clearing. Now" he said.

**Bella's POV **

Thump… Thump, Thumpthumpthumpthump

My heart was going to explode soon if we didn't get there soon. I was so nervous about the whole 'kissing Edward' thing that Alice and rose had forced me into. I didn't want Edward to think that I was impatient with him. Edward was just leading me through the forest when we heard a scream. _Not again_! Was it me, or were things getting unusually repetitive on this island. I looked over at Edward and his eyes were conflicted. I knew half of him wanted to keep going, but half of him knew that he had to go back.

"Come on" I mumbled, as I began pulling him back to the clearing. Somewhere inside, deep somewhere, I was disappointed that I didn't get my kiss, but there was always time for that later I guess. He took my hand and my heart beat unevenly. I had no idea when I was ever going to get used to his touch.

As we entered the clearing, we saw everybody else was already there. They were all sitting around the place where the fire used to be, but in its place there was a small metal object. A _phone_. Edward and I walked carefully over to the others and sat down in the space that was left. They all looked like they had been hypnotised by it or something.

"What's going on?" Edward asked them. They all looked at him for a moment before looking back at the phone.

"Shhh" jasper whispered. I felt Edward's hand tighten around mine- something was wrong.

"Somebody please-" He started.

"The- phone works" Alice got out. I felt my eyes widen as I realised what could happen. We could go home, we could go back to our normal lives, I could see Charlie again. Edward and I listened intently to the phone as well, trying to see if we could get any more news.

It was getting dark when we finally heard static over the phone radio. Edward squeezed my hand again, this was it- we'd know if they had found us yet, or we could at least phone for help.

"It's December 25th here at the LANBC, and we'd like to wish you all a merry Christmas. But before we do we'd like to have a moment of silence for the terrible accident that happened to the new Cullen Industries ship the 'Rica'. On it's maiden voyage, it crashed on the 15th of December"

We looked around at each other, hands interlinked as we waited for the rest of it.

"The known survivors of the crash are well known Ms. Jessica and Victoria Stanley, Ms Lauren Mallory and ship attendant Jacob Black…"

The radio continued a long list of people. I payed no attention whatsoever, because the only people who I cared about that got on the ship were right here with me, but I could see the others listening intently for people they might have known.

"Among the missing are Cullen industries heir Mr. Edward Cullen Jr. Famous Hollywood director's son Emmett McCarty, daughters of the founders of 'The Brandon-Hale Issue' Alice Brandon and Rosalie Hale, Jasper Whitlock and local girl Bella Swan"

Everybody gulped simultaneously as they said our names. Edward was squeezing my hand so hard now that I swore it was going to break in half sometime soon. I rubbed circles on the back of his hand with my thumb. He relaxed his grip slightly and sent me an apologetic smile.

"And the only known deceased are Cullen Industries Founders Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cullen Sr…."

The voice droned on as It continued the list of the dead, while we all turned to face Edward, his face deathly white and stone hard.

**A/N:**

**AHHHHHH EDWARD!!!! **

**sorry about the cliffy, i just couldn't help myself :D**

**please review, tell me what you think, try not to be _too_ mean about edward**


	19. Time to Hunt

**A/N: Sorry i haven't updated in a while guys, stuff's been going on and i just started a new Fanfic named The meaning of forever, so check it out if you want, Hope you guys understand.**  
**Here's your new chapter, Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: Twilight, _Still_, unfortuantely does not belong to me... **

The silence that followed was heavy and tense. I could barely breathe, and judging by the lack of noise in the clearing, no else could either. I was still staring at Edward, hoping for something to ease the tension, but it never came. He sat there as still as possible, sometimes opening his mouth as if he were about to say something, but then deciding better of it, he closed it.

As the minutes passed his eyes grew darker and his jaw, tenser. I thought it was about time someone did something, but I didn't want to be the one to break the silence. Just as I thought that I saw Emmett reach over from the other side of Edward and pat him lightly on the back.

"Don't touch me" Edward hissed. Emmett was surprised and flinched away from him. Nobody moved again after that. Minutes passed, hours passed and still nobody had dared utter another word. Timidly, I reached over to put my hand on his knee and suddenly everything changed. Edward jumped up off the ground swiftly and began to walk rapidly over to the edge of the clearing.

"Wait!" I called after him, but he didn't even flinch at the sound of my voice. I looked around at everyone else and they were just as shocked as I was. I flew off the ground and ran after him, yelling his name over and over again. He was already quite a distance away, and it took me around ten minutes to catch up to him.

Finally I caught up to him on the beach. He was walking slowly now, across the huge expanse of sand.

"Edward!" I called. He didn't look like he heard me. I ran up closer to him, now I was about ten metres away.

"Edward, wait!" I called again. I was sure he had heard me, but he hadn't moved, he didn't even notice me. I sprinted until I was only a couple of feet from him.

"Edward!" I whimpered, letting the confusion and sadness leak into my plea. This time he stopped and turned to face me, and I honestly wished that he hadn't. His jaw was no longer clenched, it was shaking slightly and he gulped loudly, he hair was all over the place from his running and probably because he had run his hands through it numerous times. But the worst part was his eyes. His hard, dead eyes stared at me desolately, standing out an incredible amount from the rest of his face. He let out another soft gulp and a tear fell softly from the corner of one of them, but he didn't allow it to get much further than a couple of centimetres before he wiped it away roughly.

"Edward I'm…. I'm" I stuttered. I closed the distance between me and him and reached out to stroke his face with my hand, but he flinched away.

"Bella" he whispered brokenly. I had to bite back the tears as Edward began to walk slowly backwards, before turning all the way around and sprinting off.

"Edward wait" I yelled after him. I tried to run after him, but my legs had gone weak. He turned around to face me one last time, his eyes still blank and dead.

"Leave me the hell alone Bella, Just leave me alone" he shouted angrily at me, before resuming his ferocious sprint. I collapsed in on myself and fell to the ground. What had just happened?

……………………………………………………….

The days passed meaninglessly, condensing into weeks. My life seemed to have no meaning anymore anyway, so what was the point of counting the days. Ever since Edward had left it wasn't only me that had gotten really depressed, the whole group had too. The social side of our existence seemed to disappear, along with the happiness and the hope that we'd ever get off this stupid island.

The daily routine turned into hard labour as we continued to struggle on, fighting for the will to survive.

It was a while after Edward had disappeared now, the cold winds had died down, letting the big orange sun warm the island slowly. The fish population in the river had decreased dramatically since we had arrived on the island, probably thanks to Emmett and jaspers Herculean appetite. They both, well mostly Jasper, assured us that they would come back, but for the meanwhile we'd just have to get the food somewhere else. That day they had both gone out to search for a new fishing spot while we girls lay in the clearing, completely silent. We all knew what was bothering each other, and we all knew that nothing we said was going to make anyone feel better. The only thing that could help was almost certainly on the other side of the island, hiding away in a cave or something.

They got back just before sundown, glowing triumphantly, and announced that they had found an even better supply than the one we had before. They were planning on making a trip down there tomorrow sometime, and asked if we'd like to come with them. I said no, obviously, and so did rose, but Alice was bored of lying around, waiting, so she hesitantly agreed.

………………………………………………………………..

**Alice's POV **

I woke up after another restless night, and rolled over onto my side. Ever since Christmas, I hadn't had a decent night of sleep, and I doubt anybody else had either. Edward was important to all of us, but even more so to Bella, and it hurt me to see her so lifeless.

Suddenly jasper stirred beside me and somehow felt how sad I was in that moment because he immediately pulled me into a tight hug and murmured "I'm sorry" in my ear. I shook my head, about to tell him it wasn't his fault, but I heard everyone getting up behind me and I didn't bother, and let him comfort me.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help but notice how empty my stomach felt right then, and it rumbled loudly. A smile crept onto jasper's face and he lifted his head above mine to look at the others.

"Should we go get some food Emmett?" he asked. I rolled over so I could see what the others were doing. Rosalie was snuggled up in Emmett's arms, still asleep, and Bella was... sad. I got up and stretched before walking over to her and pulling her into a hug. She flinched at the contact, but lent into me once she realized who it was.

"Bella it'll be okay" I told her, just like every other morning, "He'll come back when he's ready". She nodded solemnly, not really believing in what I was saying. I walked back over to jasper and helped him get up, before offering my hand to Emmett. He shook his head and gestured to, the still sleeping, rose.

"I'll catch you guys up" he mouthed over rose's head, before pulling her closer and leaning his head on hers. Jasper took my hand quietly, grabbing his small knife he and the other's used for catching fish, before pulling me away from the clearing and down onto a small path we had created through the trees. He led me silently on until we reached a big swamp looking lake. I looked at Jasper cautiously before sliding my foot gracefully into the water.

It wasn't that bad actually. I was expecting it to be freezing cold and slimy, but it was warm and fresh.

"Be careful" Jasper said as he waded into the middle. The water wasn't deep either, it only came up to my waist, and up to mid-thigh on jasper.

"So, how do I do this fishing thing then?" I asked with false confidence. He smiled brilliantly at me, as if this was something he'd been doing his whole life instead of just a few months.

"Well" he said, "You just have to get yourself in a good position and then-" his hands shot into the water rapidly, with his knife in one of them, and after a minute or so of thrashing, he had successfully captured a relatively big fish.

"Wow" I said in awe. He made that look really easy, but I'm sure it was way harder than that.

"Here, I'll help you" He offered happily, wading through the water towards me. He was smiling and glowing and everything, he looked so proud and handsome. I sighed quietly as his hands encircled my wrists, getting them ready to plunge into the clear water.

"So just wait till you see something move" he whispered in my ear as we say something flash beneath the surface, "And then…Grab it" he thrust our hands into the water and I tried to grab a hold of the slimy and very wriggly thing that had, unfortunately for it, crossed our path.

I nearly had a good hold on it when all of a sudden, it jerked away from my hands and I lunged for it, forgetting that jasper was still attached firmly to my wrists, missed it, and fell headfirst into the clear, warm water, with jasper by my side. I struggled to find my footing as I tried frantically to get my head above the water. Fortunately for me, Jasper was a much more confident swimmer and he managed to get himself out of the water and then wrap his arms around my waist and pull me out.

I was still coughing and spluttering even a couple of minutes after jasper had rescued me. He held me tightly against his chest and patted my back lightly, helping the water find its way out. When my lungs were finally drained of swamp-slash-lake water, I breathed in deeply and kissed jasper on the jaw, silently thanking him. He smiled and let go of me.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly. I nodded my head and he sighed- relieved. He waded back into the middle of the swamp-slash-lake and suggested that it might be better if he did the fishing on his own until Emmett showed up. I nodded and began to make my way over the edge of the water, but something big caught my eye.

It was a big, long, reddish-brownish coloured _thing_ that moved stealthily over the water. It was a snake, a big dark, hungry looking snake, and it was heading right towards Jasper.

"Jasper!" I hollered. He looked up, startled by my yell and I pointed to the snake that was slowly making its way over to him.

"What?" he asked. He obviously couldn't see the snake in the water from the angle. _Damn that snake was smart_ I thought angrily. Jasper had gone back to focusing on the water, looking for any movement through the clear surface. Little did he know, there was a huge snake about to creep up on him!

"Jasper!" I tried calling his name again. He looked up at me frustrated, and slightly annoyed that I wouldn't just leave him alone to catch his fish. I looked around in the water again and this time, even _I _couldn't see it. I was really starting to get worried now.

"Jasper, please just come over here" I plead. He gave me an exasperated look before slowly standing up straight and starting to move forward. What happened next came so quickly, my mind barely caught it all.

Just as Jasper took his first step, something lashed out of the water. It was the snake, and it was clearly not very happy. It squirmed under the water as jasper tried to manoeuvre around it, but it wasn't having that. It must have done something because Jasper's calm face had immediately turned white and he looked completely terrified.

It looked like the snake had wrapped around jasper's thigh, and he jumped up and down in the water, sloshing it about, as he tried to shake it off.

"Get it off!" Jasper yelled, his eyes were frantically searching around for something to get it off with while I stood there frozen, watching him tackle it on his own. Suddenly his eyes glinted and I knew he had thought of something. He reached behind him and gripped something hard. I could see him calculating something, before he raised his arm above his head, causing a small ray of light to hit his knife and make it gleam brilliantly in the sun, before thrusting it down to his thigh.

I sat there, horror-struck, as I watched the snake lash away from him and retreat to the shore, while jasper stood there stunned, his knife thoroughly embedded in his thigh. He looked down and let out a quiet and painful looking gasp before collapsing backwards into a very confused looking Emmett.

"What the hell…?" Emmett exclaimed. He was obviously just as shocked as I was as we watched the blood, Jasper's blood, slowly cloud the water. There was no one who could help, no one who could save Jasper. He was going to die, and it was _all my fault. _

_**A/N: **_

_**Another CLIFFY?!!!!**_

**yeah sorry about that, the next chapter will be up sooner this time, hopefully, so please review!!!**


	20. Con te

**Hey guys, thank you SO much for all the wonderful reviews!!!!  
i hope you like this new chapter!!!**

**And The song at the end is called "Con te partiro" by Andrea Bocelli, i suggest you listen to it cause it makes more sense of you do. **

**Edward's POV **

Why?

Why did it always happen to the people who didn't deserve it?

Why did it always happen to the people who had nothing to gain, but everything to loose?

Why did it have to hurt so much?

Why did it always have to happen to _me_?

I sat there at the edge of the world, and I thought. For months on end, I had come to this exact place and just thought, wondering futilely around my head, searching for the answers to these questions. But still, I had nothing, and I was in doubt that I'd ever find any answer at all.

I closed my eyes and sighed, trying fiercely to keep the tears from falling. All I could see was them, waving, smiling, _living,_ but what killed me was that they _weren't_ living anymore; they were dead and gone and as far away from me as possible. There'd be no new memories of them, just old replays, going over and over inside my mind. I sniffled and opened my eyes, and sure enough, they were blurry from my tears.

But I didn't wipe them away angrily; I just let them drop silently down my face and into the sand. I _needed _this. It was like some sort of closure, I was finally accepting that I'd never see them again. The ache in my chest flared up again as I thought of not seeing them. I sniffled again and hiccupped, more tears overflowing.

During those months, I had also been thinking of other things, well one thing in particular actually- Bella. There was just something about her, but I couldn't really put my finger on it. She was funny, she made me laugh; she was sweet, she made me feel loved; and she was beautiful, she was just too good for me, but I couldn't get her out of my mind. I pictured her crying everyday about me, feeling the same heart wrenching feeling I had felt when I thought about her; Pictured her calling out for me in the night, just in case I could hear her, and sometimes I thought I could, but I never replied. She just had this kind of… magical force pulling me to her. But I couldn't go back to her, not now not ever, because I couldn't risk it again, I couldn't give her my heart, because it was already torn to shreds.

I gulped again and pulled my legs into my chest and lay on my side. My stomach grumbled weakly in protest and I ignored it, I didn't need food. I lay there until the sun came up again, and even then I didn't sleep. I hadn't slept a lot in the past months besides the occasional hour or so, I didn't worry about it too much though, at least I was getting _some_ sleep.

Suddenly I saw something big fly out of the forest near where I was sitting. It looked like a frantic wild animal, I hope it wasn't coming this way; I definitely didn't have the strength to handle it. But I was lucky, or not depending on how you look at it, because that wild frantic animal turned out to be Emmett.

"Edward!" He bellowed once he caught sight of me. His tone was slightly relieved, but it was still filled with anxiety and pain. He ran up to me and stopped dead once he saw me properly, I wasn't bothered by it, I already knew that I looked like crap.

"Edward" he said again, this time pain was all that was in his voice.

"What" I asked quietly. He flinched slightly, like he could feel the pain radiating off of me as well as his own.

"It's Jasper" He said brokenly, and my heart clenched in fear. What had I done?

**Bella's POV**

I ran as fast as I could, following the directions that Emmett had given me yesterday. I couldn't believe this had happened, first Edward, and now jasper? Was this island out to get us? Meaningless questions bounced around in my head as I neared the pond, my heart thumping loudly. I rounded the edge of the water and as soon as I saw them I stopped dead.

Jasper was lying on the muddy bank, his eyes closed and his expression was peaceful, but slightly eerie. His left thigh was raised slightly by a small log and covered in deep red blood. I walked slowly over to Alice who was sitting near jasper, holding his hand and hoping for some signs of life.

"He's unconscious Alice" I told her. I wouldn't let jasper die; he couldn't, not after all that we had been through together. She nodded weakly as the tears cascaded down her face, and turned to look at me with her deep brown eyes.

"I did this" she whispered. I shook my head vehemently and crouched down beside her.

"It's not your fault Alice, this was an accident" I said. She shook her head and gulped loudly before turning her head back to face jasper.

"How long has he been out?" I asked. When Emmett had run past the clearing shouting something about jasper being hurt, I didn't think it was going to be this bad, but I should have known Emmett wouldn't get that worked up for your everyday cut.

"About seven minutes I think" she replied quietly. I took her other hand and squeezed it reassuringly, and she gave me a weak smile, her tears coming to a stop. Seven minutes; jasper couldn't die in seven minutes, I knew that for sure. His face was pale but if he could just hold on, just for a little bit longer, for Alice, for everyone, then I was sure he'd make it.

I heard leaves rustle behind us, and then a great gust of wind as someone came shooting out from the trees behind us.

"Hell" the voice growled, but it wasn't the voice I was expecting, it wasn't Emmett's cheerful, booming voice, it was smooth, like silk or velvet, a velvety voice, Edward's voice. I didn't move, I was frozen on the spot, it was Edward. He had come back!

Edward was at jasper's side in an instant, his eyes inspecting his wound thoroughly. He reached for jasper's neck and felt for a pulse. His eyes sparked for a second, but then they went dead again. My heart plummeted, this was it. Edward knew his medicine, if he gave the word that was it, jasper was gone. Instead he surprised me by suddenly barking out orders.

"Emmett go start a fire!" he commanded. Emmett, who had slipped in unnoticed next to me, Ran off again into the woods to find wood. "Alice, I need you to move away from Jasper" he ordered, but in a softer tone this time. Alice slowly pried her hands away from jasper's and slid back next to me. Edward then proceeded to investigate the wound further, being careful not to touch the crude knife still embedded in his thigh.

"Looks like venous blood, that's good, easier to stop" he mumbled to himself as his long fingers pressed down hard into a point a couple of centimetres higher than the wound. He counted quietly for a while, and I could hear Alice counting under her breath too, though I had no idea why. After he had counted for a couple of minutes, he looked up at Alice, his eyes carefully avoiding me.

"Alice, I need you to pull that knife out of his thigh" he said calmly, as if it was almost normal procedure. She looked at me shakily and I gestured for her to do it. She hesitantly got up into a kneeling position and placed herself next to his thigh and gripped the top edge of the knife in her hand.

"Now pull it out slowly" Edward instructed her. Her face paled significantly as she did what she was told and removed the knife slowly. Once it was out of his leg I heard a sharp gasp and spun around to face him. Edward was too focused on jaspers leg to pay any attention to him, even though I knew he knew that he was awake.

"Jasper?" Alice asked hesitantly. Jasper let out a quiet moan in reply and that was enough to send Alice back into her fit of tears. I hugged Alice tightly and continued to watch Edward count as he held the pressure steady on the same point.

It had been a long time when Emmett eventually came back with the wood. It might have been only minutes in reality, but the thought that jasper could die at any moment made the seconds stretch into minutes, and the minutes into hours. Edward had been holding that point in jasper's thigh for quite some time now, and the blood flow still wasn't slowing enough. He cursed under his breath and finally took the pressure off of it, and sat back on his heels.

"Emmett get me some rope or something I can tie around jasper's thigh" he barked, and with that Emmett was off again. "Alice go make the fire" he told her. He seemed to be trying extra hard to avoid speaking to me, or even looking at me.

"I'll help" I mumbled, as I picked Alice up off the floor. We lighted the fire easily after months of practice and sat next to it, warming ourselves while Edward was still studying Jasper. Just then Emmett came rushing out of the trees with a long piece of cloth, obviously torn from a dress.

"This was all I could find" Emmett said as he handed Edward the material. Edward ripped it in half and rolled both pieces up so they were a long, thin shape and then carefully laced one around Jasper's thigh, about ten centimetres above the wound. He pulled it tight before reaching for the other one and wrapping it directly over the gash.

"He's lost a lot of blood, my guess is about one and a half to two litres, and he's going to go into shock" he explained to Emmett. Emmett nodded along and looked like he was concentrating pretty hard as he took in what Edward was saying. "You need to help me turn him on his side, and…" he stopped, as though he was embarrassed to go on. He looked over at Alice and then back at jasper and shook his head quickly. "Help me take his pants off" He added.

Emmett nodded and they went to work, pushing, pulling, tugging and heaving while Alice and I just sat there and watched them uselessly. Once they had his pants off, Edward told Emmett to go find him a blanket to put over Jasper.

"Alice? Can you help me move Jasper closer to the fire?" Edward asked her, never taking his eyes off of Jasper. I was tired of him ignoring me, tired of his strange behaviour. As Alice got up to help Edward move Jasper, I got up with her, fully intending to help as well. "Just put your hands under his shoulders okay?" he told her politely. I stood there until Alice had both hands under his shoulders and Edward had one hand securely on Jasper's right ankle, and the other held his left ankle gingerly. When I was sure Edward wasn't going to tell me to do anything, I walked over and put my arms under Jasper's back to help support it.

Edward threw a wary glance at me and nodded once appreciatively. My heart fluttered, he had noticed me again! _Shut up Bella, shut up, he's just thanking you stupid_. I lifted jasper's back up as the others raised his legs and arms off the floor and we half carried half dragged jasper closer to the fire.

"Thanks" Edward said, looking only at Alice_. I told you Bella, it meant nothing_ my mind teased me. I sat down next to the fire again, and so did Alice, but by the time I had looked up again, Edward was gone.

We sat there watching over Jasper until Emmett came back with a medium sized cloth to put over the bottom part of Jasper's body. It was only then that I realized how late that it had gotten, and how dark it was. Alice had been nodding off next to me occasionally, but I took no notice of it until then, and I had to say, even Emmett looked tired. He took us that he'd be back at the clearing, in case we needed him, because Rosalie was asleep there and he didn't want to leave her alone. Alice stayed with me, mainly because of Jasper, and I could tell she tried to stay awake, but she just couldn't hold on any longer and eventually slumped onto the ground next to Jasper.

My legs ached from sitting down nearly all day, and my back was killing me. I needed to go for a walk. I moved Alice's head onto a soft bit of ground before stretching and then making my way away from the lake.

I wondered along until I came to a small beach. Well it wasn't really a beach; it was sort of a bank, like the one I had left Alice and jasper on, but with sand instead of mud. I sat down on the soft sand and watched the fish swim about in the water. All I could find was a small white one, and a big gold one. They were swimming around each other, their movements creating little ripples no the surface of the water. I smiled at them and continued to watch their strange little underwater dance.

They looked happy together, so peaceful and they just looked…right. Just like _Edward and I_ my thoughts sighed. I shook my head _it's not like that, not any more_ I corrected myself. As soon as that thought it, my chest tightened and I gasped. It felt like someone was squeezing my heart, testing to see how hard they could until it burst. I tried frantically to find something to calm me.

_The fish, look at the fish!_ My mind told me. I thanked myself silently as my thoughts returned to the fish; the perfect, peaceful fish. They were lucky, so very lucky that they never had to go through this. They never had to feel like this because it wasn't the same to them, they didn't have love, just the drive to pass on their genes, they didn't care who they shared it with.

I stood up. I needed to clear my mind, this was just too much for me to handle sitting down. I ran away from the beach, back into the trees, past the lake, past the clearing. I ran as fast as I could, my legs never tiring, my lungs never burning. I ran until I came to the edge of the forest, I ran until I could hear the sea crashing quietly loudly against the rock down below. I stopped and closed my eyes, taking in everything around me. I could smell the ocean, that salty tang in the air, and it calmed me down. I breathed out and opened my eyes.

That's when I heard it. A soft, low melody that floated through the air, pulling me in towards it. I don't know exactly when but before I knew it, I was walking slowly towards the sound. Words from the song drifted over to me. Singing, someone was singing! I listened carefully to the lyrics.

_Quando sono solo sogno all'orizzonte e mancan le parole, __Si lo so che non c'è luce  
in una stanza quando manca il sole, se non ci sei tu con me, con me_

I stopped. That wasn't English… but I knew this song. A memory flickered to life in the back of my head. I was in bed, I looked around two years old and, I gasped, there was a woman next to me, dark brown hair and a face that looked exactly like mine. It was my mum. Renée was tucking me in, and singing to me; a slow, low song, the same song that I was hearing now. I walked faster this time over to the source of the beautiful singing. As I rounded the edge of the forest I saw who it was.

Edward.

He was standing one the edge of the cliff, looking out to sea. I couldn't see his face, but I was scared to find out what expression was on it. I tiptoed quietly up behind him while he kept singing.

_Con te partirò.Paesi che non ho maiveduto e vissuto con te,adesso si li vivrò_

His voice was amazing, he was amazing. I continued walking until I was only a couple of feet from him, and began singing as well.

_Con te partiròsu navi per mariche, io lo so,no, no, non esistono più,con te io li vivrò_

As soon as I started singing he whipped around and stared at me, like I was the only thing that mattered in the world, and began to walk towards me. When the last word escaped my lips his eyes lit up and he did what I thought was impossible. He smiled at me. His perfect crooked smile that I had missed so much flooded his face.

"You can sing my song, but can you understand it?" he asked cryptically. I was about to ask what he meant when he continued singing.

_Quando sei lontana sogno all'orizzonte e mancan le parole, e io sì lo so che sei con me, tu mia luna tu sei qui con me, mio sole tu sei qui con me, con me, con me, con me_

I was lost for words; I only just realized how beautiful the lyrics were. When he finished he brought one hand up to my shoulder and traced down to my elbow, his hand left a burning-tingling sensation on my skin, making me shiver internally

"So?" he asked, "enlighten me". He looked down at me sweetly for a second, before his eyes darted down to my lips and then back up to my eyes. I smiled wickedly, there was only one thing I could do to explain how I felt in that moment.

I crashed my lips to his forcefully and my hands rose up and entwined themselves in his soft, silky hair. I could feel his smile under the kiss as his arms snaked around my waist and pulled me closer. My lungs were burning, but I didn't care. I didn't need air; I didn't need anything, anything except him. My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour, threatening to burst out of my chest, but it was being held securely in place by the one person who deserved it- Edward Cullen.

Suddenly I felt my balance falter, and before I knew it, I was on the ground and Edward was on top of me. I gasped as I he rolled off of me and onto his back; his hands left my waist and reached for my hand instead. But I wasn't going to let it go that easily. I had wanted to do this since the minute I saw him, and all I got was a measly minute? I rolled onto him and straddled his waist as I bent in to kiss him again. He accepted it happily and grabbed my hips, as I entwined my hands in his hair again.

We stayed like that for a while, our kisses never faltering, never dying, because we needed each other, to live, to carry on, to survive. It was incredibly unexpected when he pulled back roughly and pushed me off of him. He looked at me, and the lust was gone out of his eyes but in its place- sadness and emptiness.

"I think you should go now Bella" He said stiffly

"But…Edward I-"

"I said I think you should leave now Bella" he repeated, his voice hard and stone cold. I got up off of him and let my hair fall around my shoulders in an attempt to stop him from seeing the tears that escaped from the corners of my eyes. I walked quickly away from him and just as I was about to round the last corner, I glanced back at him. He wasn't facing me, instead he was looking out to sea again, and I couldn't tell because I was shaking so badly from being rejected like that, but it looked like he was shaking too as he slumped down onto the floor and curled into a ball.

I left there that night with an aching chest, and a heart that was being torn into pieces the further I walked away from him.

**Please review!!!!**


	21. The Things We Do For Love

**Sorry for the really long time it took me to post this new chapter... i wanted to make it just right and i really hope you guys like it!!!!!!!**

**And thanks for all the wonderful reviews, they make me so happy you wouldn't believe it!**

**...................................................................**

**Alice****'s POV**

_The Next day_

"Bella, Bella look!" I squealed from the centre of the clearing, I could have sworn I saw jasper's eyes flutter for a second. Bella crawled over to me, and I smiled down brightly at his weak form, and squeezed his hand. "Come on Jasper, come on" I mumbled. Suddenly his eyes twitched again and this time they opened long enough to focus on me before closing again.

"A-Alice?" he asked weakly. My heart nearly exploded with joy at the sound of his voice, as I dove down to hug him tightly around his waist, trying my hardest not to move him too much. I hadn't noticed that I had started crying, but all of a sudden a big wet patch appeared on Jasper's shirt, and I lifted my head slightly so I could see his face again.

"Yeah" I managed to splutter out, "I-its me". He smiled feebly and his hand squeezed mine back before his grip loosened and he fell asleep. I looked over my shoulder at Bella and she was smiling sweetly as well.

"It's going to be okay Bells, he's getting better" I celebrated quietly. She nodded and said:

"You bet Alice, He knew what he was doing" she said.

"Yeah, I hate to think what would've happened if it wasn't for Edward" I whispered, glancing down at Jasper. I couldn't even _imagine_ what it would be like if jasper had… died. It was strange, but he was like a part of me now, something big, and important. If he'd died, it would've been like losing my heart.

I looked over at Bella again and she looked like she was concentrating pretty hard on the ground. I knew it had been hard for her to see Edward again, after all of that, and especially when he hadn't stayed with us.

"Bella" I called, she looked up and I gestured for her to come closer. She inched towards me and when she was close enough I pulled her into a tight hug. I could feel her shaking with tears as she sobbed into my shirt. I patted her back and tried to comfort her the best I could, but she didn't stop crying.

"I'm-I'm sorry Alice, it's just that, it's s-so hard" she said in between sniffles. I patted her back comfortingly as she calmed down.

"Bella, if you miss him so much, why don't you just go talk to him?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"It's complicated" She whispered. I glanced at jasper and then looked her in the eye.

"I've got time" I said.

"Well" she started quietly, "I guess it's just been hard on the both of us, I mean, his parents _died _for crying out loud, At least my dad is still alive. He was just so… sad the last time I saw him"

"Well, you should go make him happy"

"He doesn't want it Alice, He doesn't _want _me to make him happy, and I doubt that I could do it even if he wanted me to"

"He loves you Bella, of course he does"

"He doesn't love me" she spat as a tear landed softly on her cheek. She wiped it away and leaned into my shoulder.

"He does" I said softly, "I've been watching you two, and I've never seen anything like it. It's like you were meant to be together" She lifted her head from my shoulder, her expression pained.

"If he loves me Alice, then why did he push me away when I tried to kiss him? Why did he tell me to leave him alone, Alice? Why?" she said brokenly. My mind went into overdrive trying to process the new information, they had nearly kissed? How come I didn't know about this?

"Why didn't you tell me before Bella?" I asked.

"I didn't want to add to your problems" she replied, looking down at Jasper. I shook my head and smiled lightly.

"I'll always have time to help my best friends Bella" I said seriously. As she filled me on the events, I couldn't help but look at the way she spoke about Edward. She flinched when she mentioned his name, her eyes flashed with pain when she talked about his song, and the tone of her voice was defeated. I couldn't help but compare her to a small child, scared and vulnerable.

When she finished she took one deep breath and let her silent tears fall steadily down her face, my own tears flowing as well. I couldn't believe Edward had done that. After everything they'd been through together, after everything I'd seen, he had the guts to treat someone like that, let alone someone he possibly [i]loved[/i]? It just didn't make any sense at all.

I hugged Bella until our tears had dried up and left salty stains on our faces, I hugged her until the sun was long gone, I hugged her until my eyes started to get heavy and I fell asleep.

**Emmett's POV**

It had been one day.

One day ago, one of my best friends stabbed himself.

One day ago, one of my best friends reappeared from nowhere.

One day ago, I thought nothing could get any worse.

One day is a bloody long time.

I thought as I stood knee deep in the calm, clear sea, my feet sinking slowly into the sand beneath me. Now many people wouldn't put me and the word 'introspective' together, but it seemed like our time on the island, especially the past day, had changed me a lot. It was just so weird to think that little over three months ago we were all spoiled, rich… brats, for lack of a better word, well except maybe Bella. But looking at what we have become is a shocking contrast.

If we ever get back… I mean _when_ we get back, I wonder if things will go right back to the way they were before we had been stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, But I highly doubted it. Things were never going to be the same again, not for us six.

You know all those people who have had near-death experiences and brag about all the things they're going to do and how they're going to change the world now that they've 'seen the light'? Well I bet that's just what we were, shallow low-lives who had been given a second chance. But I was going to try with everything I had to be different, to be the one person in a million that could stand up and say ' I made a difference', yeah, it was all planned out. I smiled to myself as I thought up my master plan.

"Emmett" I heard a voice call out behind me. I spun around slowly and came face to face with a yawning Rosalie.

"Have a good sleep?" I chuckled. She nodded tiredly and wrapped her arms around my waist.

"Why anyone should have to sleep in the middle of the day, I have no idea" she giggled, resting her head on my chest. This was one of the things that had changed me so much: Rosalie. She was brilliant and beautiful and smart and she was everything and anything a man could wish for.

"You're tired, a lot's happened recently" I told her wisely. She hit my arm and mumbled something along the lines of 'smart ass' before snuggling into my embrace.

**Bella's POV**

I took a deep breath and rounded that last corner again. Against my better instinct, I had let Alice talk me into seeing _him_ again. I couldn't believe Alice thought that he loved me, after all this and she still believed. Sometimes I wished I could be as optimistic as Alice. It was after dark and Alice was sound asleep on the river bank with Jasper. In fact, it was so similar to the last time I was here; it was almost like déjà vu.

My breathing stopped when I saw a small, distinct figure in the distance. He was curled up in a ball, lying on his side by the looks of it.

"_Leave me the hell alone Bella, Just leave me alone"_

His voice bounced around in my skull, his words utterly meaningless to me, yet they hurt more than anyone could imagine. I tried to keep the tears locked inside of me until after my talk with Edward, but one fell slowly and silently down my cheek. I kept walking until I was about five metres from him. I could see his body move up and down as he took in long, deep breaths. I had almost convinced myself to let him be, to leave him here and let him suffer in silence. Almost.

"Edward" I whispered quietly. I heard him Gasp audibly before bolting up right and burying his face in his hands.

"Bella" I heard him mumble. His voice was hard, and void of any emotion. I sighed and took a step closer to him. He heard me move closer, I was sure of it, but he made no attempt to stop me.

"Edward" I whispered again. This time he sighed and lifted his head from his hands, but still didn't face me.

"I'm sorry Bella" I heard him murmur so quietly I wasn't sure if was supposed to hear it.

"Edward I-" I managed to say before Edward cut me off.

"Don't! Just don't!" he spat. I recoiled from his unfriendly tone and took another step towards him.

"Edward, why?" I said quietly. He sighed loudly and rubbed his hands over his face. He didn't say anything for a while, and neither did I, but he was the first to break the silence.

"You wouldn't understand" he said, using his void tone again. I took another step towards him. If I tired, I could touch his hair from here.

"What wouldn't I understand? I'm a big girl, I think I might" I replied, trying to use as little emotion as him.

"You wouldn't Bella, trust me" he said, his tone meant this was his final comment. I took another step towards him, my knees nearly touching his back. I don't know what came over me, but I suddenly had the strangest urge to touch his hair again, to feel its smooth texture under my fingers. "Don't" he whispered, this time I could hear something bubbling underneath his empty voice.

"Please Edward, please tell me" I pleaded. He ran his hands through his hair again and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It's just that, I'm going through a lot right now and I just can't…deal with this" He said. Suddenly I felt anger flare inside of me, did he think _he_ was the only one suffering here?! He'd seen Jasper and Alice, how could he have seen that and think he was the only one?

"It's hard for all of us, not just you" I spat. He froze and sighed angrily.

"I told you Bella, I said you wouldn't understand" he replied.

"Understand what Edward?! I'm trying to help here and you're not even letting me!" I said icily.

"I don't need your help, I don't even want it!" he said, his voice getting louder with his anger.

"Just tell me!" I nearly screamed, "There is _nothing_ I wouldn't understand!" His Anger got the better of him as he jumped up and spun around to face me, his expression furious.

"So you think you understand huh?" He shouted, "You don't freaking understand anything! Do you know what it's like to loose the two people you love most in the world? The people who brought you up, who cared for you, looked after you when you were just a child? Do you know what it's like to loose them without even saying 'goodbye' or 'I love you' one last time? You don't freaking understand!"

I was taken aback by his sudden out burst, but I knew exactly what he was getting at. I had been through it myself. I looked down at the floor and tried to reason with him.

"Edward I-"

"You think you know everything! You don't know how it feels to think you've lost your best friend! You don't what it's like knowing his life is in your hands! But you don't know Bella, You don't know anything" He said finally.

I glanced up at him for the second time that night and I was heartbroken at what I found. I really hadn't been looking properly the past few times I'd seen him, I guess I was a bit busy, but this time I really looked properly. He was skinny, really really skinny; like he hadn't eaten the whole time he was gone. His arms and legs were covered in multiple cuts and bruises, but they weren't severe enough to be worried about. But the worst thing was his face.

His eyes were blank and dead, ten times worse than the day he ran away from us when he heard his parents had died, and were surrounded by big, black bags. His hair was an absolute mess, from all the times he'd run his fingers through it, sticking up in odd directions. His perfect lips were set in an uncharacteristic grimace, giving him a haunted look. And to top it all off, a single tear fell softly onto his cheek, leaving a salty track behind it.

"Oh Edward" I whispered, my voice breaking. I took a final step forwards and wrapper my arms around his waist comfortingly. Before I knew what had happened, we were both kneeling on the floor and Edward was holding onto me for dear life, so hard that it hurt. I was about to ask him to ease off a bit, but then I felt his whole body convulse around me, his tears soaking the back of my shirt.

I repositioned him carefully so that he still had his arms around me, but he was in my lap as he sobbed silently into my shoulder. I smoothed his hair comfortingly until his shaking stopped and his sobs subsided.

"Hey" I whispered. He looked up, his face stained with tears. I wiped the remaining ones away softly.

"I'm sorry" he said croakily his voice thick with tears. I shook my head, my own tears starting up now.

"Don't Edward, It's not your fault, I know you've been through a lot and it was wrong of me to demand information like that" I told him trough my tears.

"Look what I've done, now you're crying too!" he gulped, a couple more tears leaking from the corners of his eyes.

"I'm sorry Edward" I sniffed.

"It's okay Bella, Just promise…" He stopped suddenly.

"Just promise what?" I asked. He looked at me solemnly and wiped away the tears that were currently falling. When he had finished, he looked me right at me, his brilliant green eyes gleaming with some hidden emotion.

"Just, just promise you won't leave me" he said quietly. I reached up and smoothed his hair away from his eyes. He looked so vulnerable, it broke my heart again.

"Never in a million years" I whispered. He looked at me pointedly and I smiled slightly. "I promise".

**Also just to let you know, i've enabled anonymous reviewing, so if your out there and you read my story feel free to tell me!!!**

**Love you guys TONS!**


	22. Trouble With the Past

I sat with Edward, his head in my lap, for an immeasurable amount of time as silent tears ran down both of our faces, staining our already dirt encrusted faces. I looked down at Edward's blank face and began memorizing it all over again. His once pale lavender lids had now big black and purple bruises under them that looked even worse close up, and his once wild yet casual disarray of bronze hair hung lifelessly from the roots.

I sighed at the implications of death and the affect it could have on people, it was like some sick kind of ripple effect. It was strange how I found myself wondering what it would be like if Edward's parents had not died; if we hadn't heard that terrible broadcast; if the boat hadn't sunk. I was pulled from my silent musings by a quite humming that wafted up from my lap. I felt my lips tugging up into a sad smile as I recognised the song.

"I've missed you" I whispered into the night, not sure if Edward could hear me or not.

"Me too Bella, oh believe me, I've missed you so much" he said softly, opening his dull green eyes. I gently lifted my right hand from the floor, shifting my weight onto my left side and brushed some of his hair out of the way. His eyes fluttered and closed again as I continued raking my hands through his limp locks. Once I was satisfied Edward's hair was no longer hanging in his face, I traced the swelling under his eye and he shied away, his eyes flying open.

"You haven't been sleeping" I said, It wasn't a question, it was a fact. His face betrayed no emotion except for the pain that was already present from before my statement.

"Yes and no" he answered cryptically. I gave him a pointed look and he kept going, but eyed me wearily, "I sleep sometimes, but not for very long, maybe only an hour or so".

"Why won't you sleep?"

"I don't think it's that exactly, but more that I [i] can't[/i] sleep. Every time I stop concentrating, I can see them again, and it… it [i]hurts [/i] Bella, so much" he breathed, pain lacing his every word. I reached down for his hand and squeezed it softly, reassuring him.

"It'll get easier" I promised him. He nodded slowly and sat up, so he was on my right hand side, and rested his head on top of mine.

"It's just… It's I keep imagining, all these things, all these times we could have had, the memories we could have shared. I would give anything Bella, [i]anything [/i] to spend one more day with them, even one more minute, just something more" he gulped. I wrapped my arms around his torso as he gazed out at the shimmering black surface of the water. We fell into a comfortable silence for a while; nothing except the steady pounding of waves interrupted it. That is, until I spoke up.

"My mother, she... she died when I was three" I whispered. I felt Edward stiffen next to me as he realised that I knew what he was going through, in a sense anyway.

"Bella, I-" I cut him off, as if he hadn't said anything and started again.

"My dad, he used to tell me that… he used to say 'look up at the stars Bella, whenever you miss her look up into the night and pick a star. Tell it how much you miss your mummy, and how much you wish she was still here, tell it that you understand your mummy had to leave, and how much you still love her. Then kiss your hands and blow it to the stars for her Bella, and she'll know"

I couldn't hold in my tears for any longer, and I collapsed against Edward, clutching his shirt so hard it might tear. He hugged me back with everything he had, his own tears raining down onto my hair.

"They love you Edward" I said brokenly, "they're up there with my mother now, looking down on you"

He pulled away slightly so he could look me in the eyes, his own sparkling with tears waiting to be shed.

"Thank you Bella" he said simply, his voice rough from crying. And that was all that was needed. He didn't need to apologise for every little thing that he knew he couldn't have stopped, he didn't need to apologise for all the times he wasn't there, and he didn't need to tell me how much my admission hurt him, because he was Edward, and he understood.

*

The sun was just barely rising over the water when Edward quietly declared that he needed to check on Jasper's condition. I was shocked with myself as I realised that during the night I had forgotten about everyone else with us. To me, it was just Edward and I, nothing else had mattered.

I prepared myself mentally as Edward offered me his hand to help me off the cool, hard floor. As we walked away from the edge of the cliff, I felt mainly relief, but also a twinge of loss. This was the place that I had finally opened up about my mother's death with anyone, and it felt like we were just leaving it behind. Edward must have felt it the sadness radiating off of me, and we left with his promise to return.

Soon enough we entered the clearing where Alice and Jasper where staying. The first thing I saw was Alice's tiny form slumped over Jasper's body, moving slightly with her every breath. I tread softly over to them, and gently nudge Alice's shoulder as Edward kneels down on the opposite side of them.

"Alice, Alice wake up" I whisper to her. She stirs slightly; her small hands gripping a little bit tighter to Jasper's sweat drenched t-shirt.

She sighed lightly. "Mmm… Jasper. Ten minutes" she grumbled. I huffed, a small smile forming on my face as I saw Edward chuckling light-heartedly at her.

"Alice, it's me Bella," I told her. After no response I sighed and prodded her a bit harder. "Alice, Edward needs to check on jasper, so you need to get up now"- still no response.

Edward tried this time. "Alice your shoe cupboard's on fire!" he shouted urgently. Before I knew it, Alice had shot off of Jasper and was now frantically running around, trying to locate the imaginary fire. Edward was full out laughing now as he watched her run around like a chicken without a head, and even I had to admit, it was pretty funny.

Soon though, the fun was over. Alice was fuming when she realised where she was and that her precious shoes were, in actual fact, safe. She gave us a livid stare; her eyes were barely slits as she looked down at us.

My eyes widened and I pointed a finger across Jasper's body towards Edward. Unfortunately he was still sniggering quietly, causing Alice's eyes to tighten impossibly. She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest, and stuck her tongue out at Edward, who only laughed a little louder in return.

I gave him a look as Alice turned her back to us, heading to a comfy looking tree for some shade. He shrugged cheekily, his beautiful crooked smile appearing slyly on his lips. I rolled my eyes at him; he was so immature, and gestured for him to take a look at Jasper, seeing as how Alice's body was no longer in the way. His smile vanished and he became serious as he looked down at Jasper, and began to inspect his leg.

I strolled slowly over to Alice. Sliding down next to her, I sighed as shadow relieved the heat of the sun, and grabbed her hand. She was looking down at the floor, in what I thought first to be drowsiness, but as I got a clearer look, it was became apparent that it was with worry.

"Alice, he'll be okay, Edward knows what he's doing, he'd tell us if something was wrong"

"I know Bella," she smiled weakly at me, "I can't help it though"

"I know what you mean. While Edward was gone, the only think I could think about was how worried I was"

"Speaking of you and Edward…" she trailed off, giving me a knowing look.

"I did what you said Alice, and it worked. Thank you" I spoke sincerely, looking her straight in the eye.

She smiled again, this time it was a little more genuine. "It was good to see him laughing again, even if it was at my expense" she stuck her tongue out at me jokingly. I giggled and rocked lightly against her.

"Well if you weren't so hard to wake up he wouldn't have had to step in" I shot back quickly.

"Touché" she giggled. We continued our little talk, and I gave her the abridged version of last night, leaving out all the personal bits about my mother and why Edward didn't sleep. I realised as I talked to Alice, that this was the happiest I had been in months, and it was all because of the amazing man that was now walking towards us with a sad smile smeared across his face.

"Hey" I murmured as I threw one of my hands out to him, inviting him to join us.

He took my hand and squeezed it gently, before sitting down in front of Alice and I. "Hey"

"What's the news Dr. Cullen?" I ask nervously, my eyes skipping over quickly to Jasper, who still looked to be asleep.

Edward sighed frustratedly. "He seems to be okay for now, but we are on an island in the middle of nowhere, and there's not much I can do. But I'm worried. I have no way to prevent infection, and if he does get one…" he trailed off, " we really need to get off this island"

"I know" Alice sighed

"Wish we could" I added. We sat there in silence for a while, all of us watching Jasper worriedly. I held both Alice and Edward's hands- the small pulse beating in my fingers reminding me not to give up hope. Out of all of us, Alice's face held the most anxiety, her expression heartbreaking.

"We will Alice, We'll make it off this island. I promise," I said, squeezing her hand tightly as I spoke. She gave me a tiny smile again; her eyes shining with unshed tears. Edward squeezed my hand. I glanced over at him and he gave me an encouraging grin, and mouthed 'Thank you' to me. I nodded back and glanced over to Jasper again. He looked so worn out and beaten from what I could see of him, and it gave me that horrible feeling in my gut that you get when you realise that nothing lasts forever, and everything is just so amazingly fragile, one thing could destroy it. You loose your grip on the world, and it shakes you up bad.

If we lost Jasper, that would be the end. We wouldn't be able to survive let alone find the will to. When Edward left, we got a taste of it, that awful realisation that we couldn't make it, that we were doomed to rot away on this island for the rest of our lives. None of us would stand a chance if Jasper died.

*

The sun was setting now, slowly sinking into the treetops and behind the distant valleys that were still unexplored by us, turning the water a bright golden-orange as the light reflected off of it. We were still sat under the huge tree; it's shadow now stretching longer than the entire length of the pond.

I felt Alice stir on my shoulder. She had been asleep for a while now, though I was still unable to stop thinking for long enough to fall into blissful unconsciousness. Edward on the other hand was more than drained. His deep purple eyelids were drooping constantly, his head slumping forwards occasionally before he snapped it back up, desperately trying to evade even a second of sleep.

When Alice's head no longer rested on me, instead choosing to lie flat on the floor, I moved into a kneeling position, and walked forwards on my knees to Edward's exhausted form. He had moved from his original seat in front of Alice and me, to a spot closer to Jasper, though still close enough that I wouldn't risk hurting my knees too much to get to him.

No longer facing us, he now watched over jasper, which made it easier for me to crawl up to him without him noticing. Slowly I slip my hands over Edward's eyes, causing him to panic briefly, a short gasp escaping from his lips, before he relaxed and leaned into me drowsily.

"Bella" He mumbles nearly incoherently with fatigue, as I slowly shuffled backwards awkwardly, his head in my hands, as I got comfortable in my new position, before placing it on my lap. His dull green eyes shone in the remnants of the day's light.

"Edward" I whispered back. He tried to smile crookedly at me, though his lips barely moved because he was so tired, and he slowly lowered his eyelids at the sound of my voice. He took a deep breath before his hand started to search for mine. I lowered my left one to meet with his, and interlaced them. His tiny smile flickered on his face again.

I knew better to think that he was asleep now. Even though he looked incredibly exhausted, I knew he was too stubborn to give in, but I still hoped he would; the lack of sleep must have been affecting his health, and like he said before, there's only so much we could do for him on the island if he got sick.

Just as predicted, a couple minutes later, Edward's head shot up from my lap and his hand withdrew from mine so quickly I didn't notice until he was staring at me with wide eyes.

"Bella you can't let me do that," he scolded at me, but I had a feeling that his comment was directed more towards him.

His hair had fallen into his eyes and I reached up tentatively to wipe them away. When I touched his skin his eyes closed nearly immediately and his breathing slowed. "You need to sleep Edward".

He swallowed loudly and opened his eyes again. "I _can't_," He told me, "I _won't_"

"Edward" I said.

"Bella"

"Stop that!"

"Stop what?" he asked teasingly.

"That! I'm being serious here Edward, you of all people should know that you need to sleep!" I half shouted at him, not wanting to disturb both Alice and Jasper. He gave me an unconvinced look and I glanced down at the floor. "I'm worried about you," I admitted.

I studied the tiny rocks in the ground that made up the rough surface we sat on, as I felt his fingers curl around my chin, gently pushing it up so that his eyes could meet mine. I gave in and gazed into his eyes, seeing for the first time something other than fatigue; guilt.

"Bella I can't do it," he whispered, conflicted. I saw the choice he was having to make- either make me happy and keep himself healthy, or disappoint me and avoid the overwhelming nightmares he told me about. "Bella" he said, agonised.

I cupped his cheek with my palm and he leaned into it, his eyes burning. "I'll help you" I promised. He shook his head lightly.

"You can't"

"I can," I told him, my voice strong, though for some reason tears started to gather in my eyes. He breathed in deeply and closed his eyes.

"It won't work Bella, and that's not me saying no, I just _can't_ sleep," He said finally. I opened my mouth to speak, but he beat me to it. "You can try, by all means Bella, but I'm telling you, don't get your hopes up"

I felt a hot tear slide down my face as he finished speaking. He was giving me a chance to help, but I couldn't stop the tears. I felt his arms wrap around me, pulling me towards his warm body while his scent over came me. I felt myself become calmer as he rubbed circles into my back, his long smooth fingers silently soothing me.

"You can try Bella," he said once again after I had stopped crying, as his fingertips traced along my cheekbone, "But it won't work"

"It will, I'll make it work" I said stubbornly. He sighed resignedly and shrugged. "Don't give up Edward"

"I won't".

I smile at him and on the outside, he smiles back, but I can see that on the inside however, he can barely keep himself together. Reaching out to him, I ran my hand down his arm, comforting him. I was just about to speak again when I heard a shuffling off the to right of us.

"Ugh…Oof …Emmett!" Rosalie came tumbling out from behind the greenery, followed closely by Emmett. I snickered as I watch them emerge, looking completely shambolic.

"Rosalie? Emmett? What have you been doing?" Edward asked, alarmed by their frantic state.

"Completely the opposite to what you've been doing". Emmett grinned.

"And what would that be?" I asked.

"We think we've found a way off the island".


	23. The End

Hi Everybody,

I'm really sorry if you thought this might be a chapter update, it's not. These stories are probably dead, I don't want to give anyone false hope, so I'm officially saying their over now. I will try my best to get up a final chapter for Survival 101, but I can't promise anything. However, I am starting a new project. It's going to be a collection of short stories, poems, songs and various experimental type tidbits, and if you liked my writing in these stories you might like what I'm going to be posting there. It'll hopefully be up and running by Christmas, so until then I have a little sneak peak. I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for staying with me and these stories for so long. There are no words to describe the joy writing these stories and your comments and the time I've spent on here has brought me. I love you all.

**The Woods of Time**

We'll search forever in the woods of time- the land of hope for those forgotten

We'll search forever until we find the dreams we've lost and saved too often

You'll find me there

Among the trees

My rough skin bare

And I, on my knees

With no secrets to hide

Or times to regret

With no memory of those we're bound to forget

Will wait for you here, near the looking trees

A time to live a life that's free

And when the moon and painted stars

Fill the night with what we are

I'll write it down for you to find

The path is hard for those who blind-ly

Look into the night in search of rest and light

Let me know what you think.


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